Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has ordered a compensation company revisit its decision not to award a payout to a Fife woman trapped in the centre of the Paris attacks.
Christine Tudhope and her friend Mariesha Payne are receiving trauma counselling after they spent three hours “fully expecting to die” in a cellar at the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people were killed by Islamic State gunmen in November.
Ms Tudhope was advised by Prime Minister David Cameron to apply to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). She was then told the UK Government had not yet declared the atrocities an act of terrorism.
Senior Whitehall sources insisted the administrative hold-up was a “timing issue” and the attacks, which left 130 dead, have now officially been labelled as the evil deeds of terrorists.
And, following an intervention by The Courier, Ms Tudhope, from Saline, will have her case revisited by officials.
A UK Government spokesman said: “The Foreign Secretary has now designated the incident a terrorist incident. He has asked CICA to get back in touch with the people concerned.”
It is understood ministers became concerned about people “falling through the cracks” whist the legal process dragged on.
Ms Tudhope, 35, had slammed the slow progress made, adding she had not considered compensation as an option when she wrote to the Prime Minister on November 18.
She said: “What was it if not an act of terrorism? It demeans all those caught up in what happened in Paris. It might be just bureaucracy, but this is their response two months after the attacks.
“It’s made David Cameron and the Foreign Secretary look very foolish.”
Ms Tudhope and her best friend Mrs Payne, 33, from Auchterarder, had gone to Paris to celebrate the Fife woman’s birthday.
They were at a concert by rock band Eagles of Death Metal when the Bataclan was seized by gunmen. They scrambled to safety in a drinks vault in the wings of the venue.
CICA said: “Two days after the application was received, the Foreign Secretary designated the Paris attack as an act of terrorism, as is required under the legal process.”