The Hindu : Front Page : We heard gun sounds for 15 minutes, then it was quiet; when they opened the shutters, we saw bodies and blood

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We heard gun sounds for 15 minutes, then it was quiet; when they opened the shutters, we saw bodies and blood

Mumbai bureau

MUMBAI: At 10.55 p.m. on Wednesday, a crowd gathered at the Metro Cinema junction as word had spread that terrorists were holed up at the Cama and Albless Hospital close to the cinema. The road to the hospital had been cordoned off.

Suddenly, The Hindu correspondent saw the crowd running and screaming. A white police car was firing at the crowd indiscriminately. One person died. The police said the terrorists possibly escaped from the hospital by jumping into a police car after holding the driver at gun point.

They then opened fire at the crowd, which they probably thought would block their escape. At that point nobody knew when, where or how the next attack would be. The roads emptied out as people said the terrorists were on the move and could be driving around shooting people or throwing hand grenades.

In Colaba, Dr. Akash Akinwar was having dinner at Olympia, a well-known biryani restaurant, when they heard a round of gunshots. He said the owner immediately downed the main shutter and told the diners to lie on the floor. Olympia is opposite Café Leopold, which was the first place the terrorists attacked.

“We heard automatic gun sounds for at least 15 minutes and then suddenly it was quiet. When they opened the shutters we saw bodies and blood splattered all over the road. Since I am a doctor, I rushed out and picked up whoever I could, put them in a taxi and rushed to St. George’s hospital. It looked like carnage out there,” said Dr. Akinwar.

Sudden gunshots and subsequent blasts struck terror among guests at Taj Mahal Hotel, sending them swiftly into an ordeal they would never forget. N.N. Krishnadas, a CPI(M) Member of Parliament from Palakkad, was one of the few who was evacuated from the hotel by the National Security Guard (NSG) on Thursday. Krishnadas said he is in Mumbai on work with three other MPs and was having dinner at the Shamiana restaurant in the hotel when two terrorists ran in and opened fire.

“We immediately ducked under the table. They fired a few rounds and ran out. The hotel staff then took us out from an emergency exit to a lobby where about 100-150 people were lying flat on the ground. From 10.30 p.m. to 9.30 a.m. we lay on the ground and there was continuous firing and loud bomb-like sounds.” He says two foreigners who tried to escape were shot dead by the terrorists. Krishnadas’ colleagues are still in the hotel.

“We were having dinner by the poolside when we heard sporadic gunshots. We got off our seats and ran inside. The staff was ushering us into the rooms. We were 50 or 60 people in two rooms. One person was shot in the leg. The roof of our room was also damaged and water started overflowing. The fire was another concern. We feared smoke would travel through the air-conditioning ducts,” said Delbir Bains, who worked at the store London Boudoir in the hotel.

For Hector Avila, it was a case of going from the frying pan to the fire. He was having his dinner at Leopold Café when the attackers indiscriminately opened fire. “We [Hector and his partner] were looking at the shooting. It lasted for about five minutes. One woman was shot in the thigh. Then we decided to come to the Taj. We went to our rooms and learnt about the firing here.”

In the Taj hotel’s new building, an Indo-Korean business meet was in session. Shortly after ten o’clock, as the news of firing in the old building spread, over a hundred Koreans, including the Korean Consul-General and hotel staff, were swiftly huddled into a room and locked there. A nerve-wracking experience followed. A consulate official, Kitaek Kang said, “The sound of the blast kept continuing and we could see thick clouds of smoke. When we received a signal from the security to come down, we climbed down 19 floors.”

One woman reportedly fainted. After they were let out of the hotel, many of the hapless guests were in a state of shock and at a loss for words. The experience had left them stunned. Outside the Oberoi/Trident Hotel, Vincent Leahy, a Toronto resident, was glad that his sister managed to escape. “My sister Helen was part of a 25-member group touring India. A few of them were having dinner when all of a sudden, gunmen started spraying bullets in the restaurant. They dived under the table and the Oberoi staff helped them crawl out to safety and caught a cab for them. Helen is safe now,” said Vincent, who is on holiday in India.

Indur Choudhary is not so lucky. His daughter Monica Chabria and her husband Ajit went to the Oberoi for dinner . “We had no information about her safety till a friend who managed to escape said she was O.K.,” said Indur, who was waiting anxiously outside the hotel while gun battles went on inside.

Philip, an Australian national, was in his room when he heard sounds of gunfire. He quickly walked down the stairs from the 21st floor and managed to escape. “We managed to sneak out before things got worse,” he said. Another guest was shivering in his silk robe on Marine Drive, which was all he was wearing when he ran down.

Sources in the Oberoi hotel said they saw two gunmen enter the lobby from the Trident side and shot at everything in their way. Bodies slumped over and there was a lot of blood as the two made their way upstairs. The two had huge backpacks and were well-armed. Some of the staff was evacuated but not all, he said.

Two directors of Andhra Bank and two general managers, who had come to attend a meeting of an audit committee, were stuck in the Trident. They are locked in their rooms and are safe, said another bank employee who had left the hotel ten minutes before the attack.

A Japanese citizen Hisashi Tsuda, 38, was killed and another Japanese Tatsuya Kessoku, 44, was injured.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai was peaceful on Thursday after the sudden attack on its premises on Wednesday. Holes from bullet shots, in the walls of the CST railway police station, bear testimony to the hair-raising incident of firing and blasts that rocked the junction at 9.25 pm.

Around 50 people lost their lives to the terrorists’ bullets and grenades. Many were police officers. Assistant Police Inspector Bhonsale, Police Inspector Shinde, Railway Police Force jawan Chowdhari, a superintendent of Railways and one more employee were killed, said PSY Parshuram Tavde.

Around 60 people were injured at CST alone. “There were no children. We are handing over the bodies for identification to the families of the deceased. We also have a lot of luggage left behind. We are waiting for people to come and claim their belongings,” he said.

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