British dad's entire family wiped out in Sri Lanka as daughter, wife & son die in the attack

A British lawyer has revealed how his wife and two children were blown up at a breakfast table in Sri Lanka and said they had 'mercifully' died instantly.

Ben Nicholson, 43, was seen wandering the streets of Colombo in a blood-soaked T-shirt in a desperate search for news amid the Easter Sunday massacre which killed at least 320 people, including 45 children. His wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 14, and daughter Annabel, 11, were killed in the restaurant bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo when two suicide bombers walked in and blew themselves up at breakfast. Tonight the high-flying British lawyer paid tribute to his 'amazing, intelligent and talented' family and said they 'brought joy to the lives of everyone'. Mr Nicholson said they had 'mercifully died instantly and with no pain or suffering', in the Table One cafe on the second floor of the hotel, where they were staying on a family holiday. As details of the scores of victims emerged today, ex-firefighter Billy Harrop - who was celebrated for his heroism during an IRA bombing in 1996 - was named as another of the British victims along with his wife Dr Sally Bradley. In Sri Lanka, suspicion has fallen on a little-known Islamist group called National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) and its radical cleric founder Zahran Hashim.