Dotcom millionaire hurt in Morocco car crash

Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox was seriously injured in a road accident in Morocco, it emerged today.

The 30-year-old multi-millionairess is reported to have had emergency surgery following the accident in the seaside tourist town of Essaouira, near Marrakesh.

Ms Lane Fox is said to have been on holiday with three friends when the accident happened early yesterday evening.

No details about the crash have emerged, but it was reported that Ms Lane Fox was taken to a local hospital with suspected haemorrhaging.

Ms Lane Fox’s mother reportedly had to give an assurance by telephone that any medical bills would be paid before surgery could begin.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said today: “We are aware of a British national seriously injured in a road traffic accident near Marrakesh in Morocco. We are offering consular assistance.”

Ms Lane Fox became the face of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s after co-founding the Lastminute.com internet site.

In 2000 Ms Lane Fox boasted a paper fortune of £40m (€59.3m) but after the company’s share price crashed, that was cut to £9m (€13.3m). Now her stake in the company is valued at around £23m (€34m).

The daughter of a distinguished writer who became an Oxford don at 24, Ms Lane Fox was educated at Westminster School and Oxford University.

At the time of the business’s 2000 flotation, she admitted to working days that finished at 2am and said in one newspaper interview: “It isn’t even possible to have a life.”

Ms Lane Fox quit the day-to-day running of Lastminute.com last year, and was poised to become the new head of department store group Selfridges.

The coastal resort of Essaouira, founded in the 16th century by the Portuguese, is popular with artists and independent travellers.