Mumbai victims may get £500,000

Travel insurers will meet the government within the next two weeks to discuss a compensation scheme for British victims of terrorism abroad. Both parties would pay in to a compensation pool that could give victims up to £500,000 – the same amount received by terrorist casualties injured in the UK.

Following the attacks in Mumbai last week, in which at least 170 people died, including one Briton, law firm Lovells said it was trying to negotiate a deal between the 10 largest insurance companies and the government.

But a spokesman for the ABI said it was not a travel insurer’s responsibility to provide compensation and there were no plans for a deal. Many insurers already provided cover for medical expenses resulting from terrorism, he said.