Iceland first lady sends Mumbai police into tizzy

Iceland first lady gave some anxious moments to the Mumbai police when she went incommunicado for a few hours from her suite at Hotel Trident.

Dorrit Moussaieff, wife of Iceland president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, went "missing" for six hours from the hotel on Monday, following which police were put on alert.

"We were about to launch a manhunt for the president's wife across the city, when she walked into the hotel with shopping bags," a senior officer at Marine Drive police station said.

Dorrit, he said, had gone for shopping, and had visited a spa.

The president and his wife, on an official visit to the country, had made a low-key stopover in the city, and attended a dinner at Raj Bhavan on January 12.

While Dorrit arrived in Mumbai on Monday morning, the president had reached later in the evening.

At around 1130 hours, Dorrit suddenly disappeared from her suite. "A team of around 25 policemen deployed for her immediately informed us at the police station, after which more men were pressed into action," the official said.

Sources in Mumbai police's protection branch said as the first lady did not want a heavy police escort, only a few from the branch accompanied her. The matter was a closely guarded secret, and even policemen deployed for her security did not get a whiff of it.