Survivor Called Hijack Leader

Maltese authorities said today that a wounded 20-year-old man now under heavy guard in a Valletta hospital was the leader of the gunmen who took over an Egyptian jetliner in a 24-hour hijacking that cost 59 lives.

Government spokesman Paul Mifsud said the man, listed in satisfactory condition at St. Luke’s Hospital, gave his name as Omar Marzouki and said he was Tunisian. Mifsud also said the earlier death count of 60 was incorrect because a Canadian infant had been counted twice. He said an Israeli passenger shot in the head by hijackers, Nitzan Mendersson, was “clinically dead” today but was still being counted among the survivors.