Sri Lanka Terror: Dad Loses Whole Family (Photos)

 

 

A bloodsoaked British dad desperately “wandered alone” through Colombo morgues as he tried to find his wife and children — before being told they were dead.

 

Lawyer Ben Nicholson walked the streets of the Sri Lankan capital and tragically searched hospitals for any sign of his family after they were caught up in a terror attack yesterday.

 

According to The Sun, Anita Nicholson, 42, her son Alex, 11, and daughter Annabel were among the 290 killed in co-ordinated ‘ISIS-inspired’ terror assaults at churches and hotels in the country on Easter Sunday.

 

 

Shakya Wickramanayake, a supreme court lawyer, said that her dad and a family friend helped the distraught British father scour Colombo for his son.

 

She said: “The sister and mother were found dead before we met Mr Nicholson.

 

 

AP reports that “mercifully, all three of them died instantly and with no pain or suffering.” Mr Nicholson says the family was on a vacation. He thanked medical teams at General Hospital in Colombo for their help and asked for privacy so he could grieve with his extended family.

 

Anita and her two kids had been queuing for breakfast in the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, when a terrorist — who checked in under a false address and name Mohamed Azzam Mohamed — joined the line at 8.30am before detonating his bomb before being served.

 

Ben is not believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries and was last seen with his ear plastered at the capital’s Judicial Medical Office, the Telegraph reports.

 

He is said to be “completely in shock” after losing his entire family.

 

Last night a relative in Essex said: “It’s all still very raw.”

 

Ben and Anita both worked in Singapore as lawyers, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

 

 

The father-of-two is believed to be a partner in the Singapore branch of Kennedys Legal Solutions while his late-wife last worked for mining and metals company Anglo American.

 

According to her profile, Anita previously worked for HM Treasury in London and oil giant BP.

This morning, Manisha Gunasekera, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, said eight Britons were killed in the bomb attacks.

 

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “As of now I think there is information on eight nationals who have lost their lives and the other numbers are of other nationals.”

 

The Sri Lankan government has named local Jihadi terror group National Thowheeth Jama’ath as being responsible for the horrific attacks.

 

But one British family cheated death, even as they were caught up in the atrocity as their hotel became a target for the terror.

 

Dr Julian Emmanuel, 48, an NHS doctor from Surrey, his wife Maria, 39, and their young children Jasintha and Neethan were staying at the Cinnamon Grand when they were woken by the blast.