Insurance claims could cross $15 bn

London, Sept 12: Insurance companies could face the most expensive man-made disaster ever with claims up to $15 billion after terror attacks in the United States, industry specialists said on Wednesday.

Insurance stocks were marked down sharply for a second day as investors worried about potential claims, with the DJ Stoxx insurance index down 4.4 per cent at 1227 GMT -- touching a three-year low -- after Tuesday’s 13 percent slide.

The world’s largest reinsurer, Germany’s Munich Re was one of the first to give an estimate of the likely cost, putting its liabilities at up to 1.0 billion euros ($906.6 million) and saying this would severely hurt profits.

Munich Re shares had shed 4.7 per cent by 1310 GMT and other heavy fallers in the sector were France’s AXA, down 8.6 per cent, Swiss Re, off 6.9 per cent, Zurich Re, falling 7.3 per cent and Germany’s Allianz, shedding 5.6 per cent.

Credit rating agency Moody’s said the total bill could be $10-15 billion for Tuesday’s attacks, when hijacked aircraft ploughed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington -- well above an initial estimate of around $6 billion given by a spokeswoman for Swiss Re.

The most expensive man-made disaster to date was the $3billion paid out for the Piper Alpha oil platform blast off Britain’s coast in 1998.

Claims could come in for the twin World Trade Center towers, which cost $750 million to build in the early 1970s, as well as from the airlines that owned the hijacked airplanes, United Airlines, part of UAL Corp and American Airlines.

-- Reuters