The billionaire fashion tycoon behind online clothing retailer Asos lost three of his four children in the Sri Lanka terror attacks, a spokesman has said.
Anders Holch Povlsen, 46, is Denmark’s wealthiest man and is believed to be the largest landowner in Scotland after buying a string of historic estates.
He and his wife Anne hold an estimate 200,000 acres of the Scottish Highlands, and had planned to rewild the landscape to preserve it for future generations, according to a Guardian report from earlier this year.
Jesper Stubkier, communications manager for Holch Povlsen’s wholesale fashion business Bestseller, said the couple had lost three children in the Easter Sunday attacks.
He told the Press Association on Monday: “I can confirm that three children have been killed.
“We have no further comment and we ask that the family’s privacy is respected at this time.”
He declined to comment on the identity of the children or whether other members of the family had been visiting Sri Lanka.
It is also unknown in which of the series of blasts they lost their lives.
At least 290 people have died and 500 were injured in the blasts, with 35 foreigners among the dead.
Suicide bombers targeted three churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo’s Kochchikade district. Blasts also hit the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Colombo, the country’s capital.
A Sri Lankan government official said a local militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath was responsible.
On Monday, the Queen said she was “deeply saddened” by the attacks as she offered her condolences to the president of Sri Lanka.