London, November 28
A British-Cypriot businessman was named as one of 125 persons killed in the Mumbai attacks, hours after he gave an interview describing how he was trapped in a hotel with gunmen outside.
The British Foreign Office yesterday announced that one Briton was among the dead, and Cypriot foreign ministry officials later confirmed reports that the man was 73-year-old Andreas Liveras, a yacht tycoon who immigrated to London
in 1963.
The Cyprus news agency reported his brother Theophanis as saying that Liveras had been abducted with a large group of other diners and “assassinated in cold blood during the terrorist attacks.” Liveras gave a telephone interview to the BBC from the Taj hotel.
He had heard it was the best restaurant in Mumbai, but told the British broadcaster: “As soon as we sat at the table we heard the machine gun fire outside in the corridors and
everywhere.
He estimated there were “more than 1,000 persons” in the room, a mixture of residents, tourists and locals.
“We’re not hiding, we are locked in here-nobody tells us anything, the doors are locked and we are inside,” Laveras said.
“We have got hotel staff here at this moment, who are helping us a lot, providing water and sandwiches. But nobody is eating really, people are frightened.” He said as he was speaking, “it’s very quiet.
Laveras was ranked 265 in the Sunday Times newspaper’s list of the richest people in Britain.
— AFP
