Indian 'dies after four days stranded at Oman airport'

MUSCAT - An Indian woman died after losing her passport and becoming stranded for about four days at Muscat airport, an Indian embassy official in the Omani capital said on Sunday.

The woman, a housemaid identified as Beebi Lumada, "died of some illness" when she was being taken to hospital, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that "she was suffering from bouts of hysteria."

She had been trying to fly home to Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, on Qatar Airways via Doha where officials turned her back to Muscat on Monday after she lost her passport.

She was forced to stay in Muscat airport's transit area where she was provided with food, the official said, adding the embassy had been in contact with her but "couldn't get any documents."

"On Friday, her health deteriorated, so she was sent to the Ibn Sina Hospital," but she died en route there in an ambulance, the official said without elaborating on the possible cause of death.

The woman's body was being sent back to India.

(AFP) - 10 October 2010,