Do you know anyone caught up in the Mumbai unrest?
Email the Herald Newsdesk
KEY POINTS:
Greg Davey will today try for the third time this week to return to New Zealand.
The former Napier man was supposed to fly home from Mumbai on Thai Air via Bangkok, but his flight was cancelled because of the civil unrest there.
Then, as he waited for
another flight, he was trapped in the terrorist attacks that came within 200m of his apartment in Worli, south Mumbai.
"We heard one blast and I felt the vibrations. I went 'shit, I wonder what that is', and then we heard another one. It was like being very close to two shot guns going off, but more rumbly and more deep because you could feel it.
"I looked out the window ... and I quickly closed the window again and thought 'I don't want a part of that'."
It was not until his mother-in-law in New Zealand sent a text message about an hour later, that they turned on the news and realised the full extent of what was happening.
Mr Davey - who is 10 months into a three-year contract with Rugby India - said he and his wife Kim had spent the hours before the attacks Christmas shopping for their six-week summer break in New Zealand.
"The frightening thing is that we were here on the street last night shopping, where these bombs went off. One of the places that's been attacked, Leopold's, we had dinner at last night. It's probably the most famous restaurant in Mumbai," he said.
Teams of gunmen stormed two luxury hotels, the restaurant, a crowded train station and the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch, in India's financial capital, killing at least 101 people, injuring more than 300 and taking Westerners hostage.
Among the dead were at least one Australian, a Japanese and a Briton.
A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.
Police and gunmen exchanged occasional gunfire at luxury hotels and dozens of people were believed held or trapped in besieged buildings.
Officials said at least eight militants had also been killed since the overnight attacks that targeted at least 10 sites began about 9.30pm local time.
Police loudspeakers declared a curfew around Mumbai's landmark Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building in an assault on gunmen who had taken hostages in the hotel.
Soldiers outside the hotel said troops were moving slowly, from room to room, looking for gunmen and traps.
A series of explosions rocked the Taj Mahal just after midnight, local time. Screams were heard and black smoke billowed from the century-old edifice on Mumbai's waterfront.
Firefighters poured water on to the blaze and used extension ladders to pluck people from balconies before the hotel was made safe.
At the upmarket Oberoi hotel, soldiers could be seen on the roof of neighbouring buildings. A banner hanging from one window read "save us". From the road, no one could be seen inside the room.
The attackers targeted Britons and Americans at the hotels and restaurant, witnesses said.
The deputy chief minister of India's Maharashtra state said last night that between 100 and 200 guests and workers could be trapped in the Oberoi, being held by 10 to 12 militants.
The motive for the onslaught was not known, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.
An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Other gunmen attacked Leopold's restaurant, popular with foreigners, and the police headquarters in southern Mumbai.
Gunmen also attacked the Cama and Albless Hospital and the G.T. Hospital. It was not known late last night if they had killed anyone.
Auckland businessman Steve Simms, on a week-long business trip to Mumbai, said he was supposed to have been staying in the Taj Hotel where the terrorists struck.
But he was booked into another hotel, about 200m away as the original hotel was full.
"I'm kind of feeling like the passenger that didn't make it to the 9/11 flights."
Mr Simms said he was in good spirits, but at one stage he had barricaded himself in his room, using "a few things, like my suitcase".
London-based Kiwi Andrew Whiteman was also holed up in his hotel room yesterday, about 500m from the Oberoi Hotel.
Mr Whiteman, 28, said he locked his door and turned the lights off to avoid attracting the attackers' attention.
"I was at the gym and then I came back to my hotel and I got a text from my Indian business partner which said 'It sounds like a war zone where you are, text me to let me know you're all right'.
"And I texted back with just a few question marks, saying, 'What are you talking about?'... and then saw everything on the TV and thought, 'Oh shit".
Mr Whiteman said the streets around his hotel were empty.
"There's generally something going on. It's crazy. It's really eerie. It's quiet - except for maybe like a big police van taking people through with the sirens going, but other than that it's dead quiet."
Mr Whiteman said many expatriate New Zealanders, British and Americans visited the Taj Hotel for meals even if they were not staying there.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Andrew Koubaridis, AP, agencies
