A BUSINESSMAN from Stockport is feared to be among the victims of the terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

Michael Lomax made a desperate mobile telephone call to his wife Erica from the 84th floor of the South Tower just before the second hijacked airliner crashed into the building.

The 37-year-old Oxford University maths graduate, who worked on the 93rd floor, made the call as he was trying to escape with thousands of others after the neighbouring North Tower was attacked.

Colleagues have told Michael's wife he vanished suddenly as they attempted to evacuate and there has been no sign of him since.

Mr Lomax, a former Stockport Grammar school pupil, worked as an actuary and a vice-president of an insurance company called AON RE.

Hopes

Today his father Ronald, mother Brenda and sister Elaine, from Heaton Moor, were hoping against hope for some good news.

His sister Elaine admitted they had almost given up hope of Michael being alive.

''I suppose there's a tiny grain of hope. There's got to be. You read about earthquakes in Turkey and other places and people come out after three weeks.

''But we've got to realise that there are 5,000 people missing. You are going to be lucky to find one person and damn lucky if he's the one you're looking for.''

After graduating, Michael worked in London for Commercial Union before going on to work in Toronto and Boston, where he met his wife. He moved to New York five years ago.

Happy

Elaine added: ''It was a fantastic job offer. He was very happy there. He phoned on Sunday and said he had just ordered a new kitchen.

''On the day of the attack he phoned his wife Erica from the 84th floor saying he was trying to get out but that he was stuck in the South Tower, which was hit second but collapsed first.

''We thought Mike would be okay because on Sunday he said he would be out of the office a lot. We watched it on television and thought he would not be there. You do not watch something on television and think you will be involved, do you?

''Erica e-mailed us saying Mike had phoned from the 84th floor and that's when it hit home. We thought 'Oh my God - he was in there', but we still thought he would be okay.''

john.scheerhout@gmnews.co.uk

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