Brussels attacks: profiles of the victims

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/brussels-attacks-profiles-of-the-victims

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Adelma Tapia Ruiz, 36, from Peru

Ruiz was the first publicly confirmed death from the attack. She was a chef who hoped to open a Peruvian restaurant in Brussels, where she lived. Her brother Fernando Tapia Coral, said in an interview that she was at the airport to catch a flight to New York to see her sisters. She was there with her Belgian husband, Christopher Delcambe, and their twin four-year-old daughters.

Tapia Coral said the girls went outside the gate area to play shortly before the explosion and Delcambe followed them. He was unable to find Ruiz after the blast. Delcambe was injured and one of the girls suffered shrapnel wounds to her arm.

Tapia Coral confirmed his sister’s death on Facebook, saying: “This tragedy today touched the doors of my family this morning in the Brussels airport, when my sister Adelma Tapia died in the terrorist attack and was not able to survive this jihadist attack that we’ll never understand.”

Leopold Hecht, 20

Hecht was studying law at Saint Louis University, which confirmed his death in a Facebook post. The Brussels institution described him as “one of the unfortunate victims of the barbarous acts perpetrated on Tuesday, March 22, at Maelbeek metro station”, adding: “There are no words to describe our dismay at the news. All our thoughts are with his family and relatives.”

Olivier Delespesse

Delespesse worked for the Federation of Wallonia-Brussels, which announced his death on Facebook. In an initial post it said one of its employees had died. It then named him in a post, expressing condolences to all the victims of the attacks and “particularly the family of our colleague Olivier Delespesse”.

His colleague Anne Hellemans had previously posted an appeal for information regarding his whereabouts.

She later wrote: “The news that we have received concerning Olivier Delespesse is bad … He died in the bombing of the metro yesterday.”