The clock stopped just after midday for the Maliban bottling factory as 4 Israeli missiles wiped out in an instant the fruits of a 40 year collaboration between British Indian businessmen and the inhabitants of Lebanon’s Bekaa valley.

The Madhvani family bought the bottling plant - now worth no more than its price in scrap metal - in 1966. Times were tough then in East Africa and, foreseeing the expulsion of the Asian community by Idi Amin, the family was diversifying from its main sugar business in Uganda.