A ROSSENDALE Council engineer has spoken of his relief at finding out his wife and three daughters were safe after they were caught up in the religious violence in India.

Navin Patel, senior assistant engineer based in the council's Stubbylee Hall in Bacup, has relatives who live near the Gujarat capital of Ahmadabad where the troubles between Muslims and Hindus have resulted in the death of 500 people.

His wife Divya and three daughters Reena, Nisha and Shinal, have all been in Gujarat on a three-week holiday preparing for Reena's wedding in June.

Navin, 52, said: "They have been next to where all the trouble has been but fortunately they have not witnessed any of it.

"I heard about what had happened on the news and I spent all day trying to get through to make sure they were all right on the land lines but they were all blocked. I tried later on my mobile and managed to get a connection."

He said two of his daughters Nisha and Shinal had returned to England and had phoned him from London to tell him they were fine. The airport had been unaffected by the troubles.

His wife and Reena will be returning on Saturday and Navin said: "I will be relieved when they are back home.

"I am just hoping that we are over the worst of it and nothing starts up again because the latest figures I have heard say there have been 500 killed."

He said his daughters were in Gujarat to get items for the wedding, but although they had ordered them in the city they had been unable to collect them because of curfews and restrictions on movements after the deaths.

He said: "My wife is hoping to be able to go in to collect everything. Although there is still an army presence they were lifting the curfew."

Reena's wedding dress has been specially made in Bombay and is being collected on the way home.

Most of the dead are Muslims and police reports say that 78 people have been shot dead by security forces.

Last week a train carrying Hindu activists was attacked which prompted fighting and rampaging through the city of Ahmabadad, the commercial centre of Gujarat.