Andreas Liveras

The hostages who failed to make it to safety, or died soon after breaking free

Andreas Liveras, 73

The UK shipping tycoon phoned the BBC from a locked room in the Taj: “The hotel is shaking every time a bomb goes off. Everybody is just living on their nerves.”

Hours later on Thursday night, he was declared dead at St George’s Hospital, shot “multiple times” though the circumstances remain unclear. “There must be more than 1,000 people here,” Liveras told the BBC. “The doors are locked and we are inside. Hotel staff are helping us a lot, providing water and sandwiches — but nobody is eating really, people are frightened.”

Liveras, who emigrated from Cyprus to London in 1963 and started out as a baker’s delivery man, might have escaped death if he had been carrying his Cypriot passport. The terrorists had separated UK and US passport holders.

Liveras’s British assistant was one of the hostages picked out for execution but he escaped despite suffering gunshot wounds. Theophanis later called Liveras’s mobile, which was answered by an Indian woman who shocked him by shouting: “He’s been shot.”

Ralph Burkei, 51

The TV company co-owner from Munich was not killed by bullets – he injured himself fatally by jumping out of the Taj hotel. He called a friend on his cellphone to say: “I have broken every bone in my body. If no one helps me now, I am finished.” He died on his way to hospital.

Hisashi Tsuda, 38

The father of two from Tokyo would have lived had his cab been caught in a traffic jam or had he stopped to buy a snack on his way to the Oberoi Trident. The executive was checking into the hotel when he was shot in the leg, chest and abdomen. He died during surgery at hospital.

Birthday hubby

At the Taj restaurant, the wife could see the gunmen through the frosted glass. She had come to celebrate her husband’s birthday, along with both sets of parents.

They were led through kitchens and staff stairwells into safer quarters, where they huddled till nearly 4am. She and her parents slipped out through the back staff exit, but with so many cellphones trilling, they drew the attention of the gunmen.

They began firing at those trying to flee. Her husband and his parents got left behind. Eight hours later, in the shadow of the hotel, she stood waiting for them to come out. Her husband did not answer his cellphone. She was still dressed in her black dinner blouse.