A jinxed Bulgarian mobile phone number -- +359 888 888 888 -- has been suspended after three users died in the last 10 years, the last owner being gunned down outside an Indian eatery in Sofia, a media report said.

The first owner, Vladimir Grashnov, the former Chief Executive Officer of Bulgarian mobile phone company Mobitel -- which issued the number -- died of cancer in 2001, aged 48.

There were rumours that his cancer was caused by a trade rival using radioactive poisoning, the 'Daily Mail' reported.


The jinxed number then passed to Bulgarian mafia boss Konstantin Dimitrov. He was gunned down in 2003 by a assassin in the Netherlands during a trip to inspect his 500-million-pound drug-smuggling empire.

Dimitrov, who died aged 31, had the mobile with him when he was shot while eating out with a beautiful model.

Russian mafia bosses, jealous of his drug-smuggling operation, were said to have been behind the killing.

The phone number then passed to crooked businessman Konstantin Dishliev. He was also gunned down outside an Indian restaurant in Bulgaria's capital Sofia in 2005, after taking over the jinxed line, the report said.

Estate agent Dishliev had secretly been running a massive cocaine trafficking operation before his killing. He died after 130 million pounds of the drug was intercepted by police on its way into the country from Colombia.

Callers now get a recorded message saying the phone is "outside network coverage".
A Mobitel spokesman would only say: "We have no comment to make. We won't discuss individual numbers."

Src: [ndtv.com]