Brussels attacks: I couldn’t let my girls grow up without a dad, says basketball star

A professional basketball player who survived the terror attack at Brussels airport said that as he lay bleeding profusely and fearing death, he thought of something odd: his daughter’s tennis skills. "It’s funny, the things you think of,“ said Sebastien Bellin, a Brazilian-born athlete who plays in the Belgian professional league. He added: "I started playing tennis with my oldest, my seven-year-old. She’s a hell of a tennis player, and so I was like, ‘I got to get through this, you know, because she needs her coach.’ And some of the things that go through your head, they seem so trivial but it gets you through those moments." A photo of Bellin, 37,  lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from the leg and with his face blackened, was one of the first images to emerge in the immediate aftermath of the airport blast.

I just didn’t want my girls to grow up without a dad, you know?

Bomb survivor Sebastian Bellin

Meanwhile, a flight attendant injured in the airport blasts is in a stable condition and recovering in a Brussels hospital, her airline Jet Airways said Friday.Nidhi Chaphekar, who was photographed bloodied and her uniform ripped to shreds in the aftermath of the blast, suffered burns and fractured her foot. Elsewhere, it has emerged a German lawyer on a business trip to Brussels escaped the airport bombing and then the metro station attack. Marc Schreiner said he fled the airport and caught a cab into the city. He added: "I got off the taxi directly in front of the entrance to the metro where then, exactly at the moment when I arrived and got off the taxi, the second bomb exploded.”

The doctor has confirmed that Nidhi is in stable condition and not in coma. She is resting and under sedation for her comfort.

Jet Airways statement

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