ID :
32669
Thu, 11/27/2008 - 21:37
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/32669
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One Australian dead in Mumbai: report
At least one Australian is dead, two others have been shot and another is unaccounted for after gunmen lobbed grenades into crowds and opened fire with machine guns in India's financial capital.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned there could be more Australian casualties.
Officials said they were checking unconfirmed reports two Australians may have been killed in the simultaneous attacks on two luxury hotels, a restaurant, a railway station and other sites in Mumbai on Wednesday.
A 49-year-old Australian man is among more than 100 killed, the Press Trust of India said, along with a Japanese national.
A young Sydney woman has undergone surgery after she was shot through the leg, the bullet shattering her femur. Her boyfriend from Townsville suffered flesh wounds from bullets that grazed his leg.
Survivors have said the attacks were targeted at Westerners, with gunmen rounding up
terrified tourists and demanding to know their nationalities.
Parts of Mumbai remain under siege, with an unknown number of foreigners being held
by the terrorists in buildings surrounded by Indian special forces.
Mr Rudd described the attacks as murderous and said little was known about the
Deccan Mujahedeen, the group claiming responsibility for the attacks.
"But whichever group has perpetrated this attack, they are cowards, absolute cowards
and murderers," he said.
Mr Rudd joined a chorus of condemnation, as images of blood pooled on the floor at
Mumbai's main Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and at the five-star Taj Mahal and
Oberoi Trident hotels filled news bulletins.
The attack on India's stability, peace and democracy reminded the nation that
international terrorism was far from defeated, Mr Rudd said.
Officials said one member of a 12-person NSW government trade mission, which had
been staying at the Oberoi Trident, remained unaccounted for.
Another of the delegates, Garrick Harvison, an export manager for winery Yarraman
Estate, was on Thursday holed up in his hotel room waiting to be rescued.
The attacks have threatened to derail a lucrative tournament involving Shane Warne
and other cricket stars.
Cricket Australia (CA) put an immediate halt on travel plans for next week's
super-rich Champions Twenty20 League involving Warne, Test stars Mike Hussey,
Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson, and the West Australian and Victorian state teams.
"We are basically on temporary hold while we assess the situation, while we get
expert advice and while we consult all of the parties involved," a CA spokesman
said.
"I'm shocked," Warne said in Melbourne.
"We are heading to Mumbai and that (the Taj Mahal) is the hotel we are staying at. I
don't think we will be going now - why would you?"
The father of Kate Anstee, the Sydney woman shot as she dined at Mumbai's Cafe
Leopold, has praised the heroic actions of her boyfriend David Coker.
Chris Anstee said the 24-year-old could have died had Mr Coker, 23, not carried her
to safety.
"They were just sitting there and a whole lot of guys, four or five guys, just
opened fire with machine guns," Mr Anstee told AAP.
"Dave has been very quick-witted and level-headed. He grabbed Kate and picked her up."
Mr Coker's father John said his son had told him how the scene played out.
"He lay on top of her until the shooting stopped and then picked her up and carried
her outside and saw a gunman about 15 metres away and said he'll never forget the
look - (he) looked at him and (the gunman) looked at David and he said 'he didn't
shoot me dad'."
The couple had only been in Mumbai for a few hours when gunmen attacked. Ms Anstee
has undergone surgery on her shattered leg. She will remain in intensive care while
doctors wait for her condition to stabilise before they operate again.
Mr Coker is also in hospital after suffering minor bullet and shrapnel wounds. Their
mothers plan to fly to India on Friday to be with them in hospital.
Mr Coker said they had tried to flee when shooting broke out but he quickly realised
Ms Anstee was not behind him.
"I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn't walk," he
told The Courier-Mail. "I grabbed her and got out of there as soon as possible.
"They (the terrorists) looked just like boys. They are on a rampage - it's full-on."
Australian actress Brooke Satchwell hid inside a tiny bathroom cupboard for about an
hour to escape gunfire at the Taj Mahal hotel.
"It was really terrifying. There were people getting shot in the corridor. There was
someone dead outside the bathroom," she told the Ten Network.
Her partner, film editor David Gross, told how he and a group of other Australians
had huddled "silent like mice for five hours" as they listened to the gunbattle
raging inside the hotel.
But when they realised the gunmen were outside the door of the function room where
the group had holed themselves up, they began tearing down the curtains and
fashioned a 20-metre long makeshift rope.
Minutes later they had smashed open the window of their upstairs haven and shimmied
down to the debris-littered street. Then they ran for their lives.
"We started sliding out. At this stage there were embers dropping down from the
burning storeys above, there was glass all down the bottom," Gross told ABC radio.
"We just kept running until we were past it all ..."
Gross said the hours inside the Taj Mahal had been terrifying - the gunmen had
blocked the hotel's exits and the fire escapes were locked.
"We were basically forced into the corner ... we were holed up there with probably
about 75 to 100 people," he said.
"We started getting furniture, kitchen appliances ... pushing as much stuff against
the doors to barricade ourselves inside that area.
"... there were hundreds of rounds being fired and we all suddenly just realised
that they were coming this way and we weren't going to stop them."
Australian man Steve Smith said he saw two gunmen toss grenades into a restaurant at
the Taj Mahal where he was having a beer just hours earlier.
"Then they opened fire for about 10 minutes with AK-47s (semi-automatic assault
rifles)," Mr Smith told the Seven Network.
An Australian woman due to marry in Mumbai in four days said the city was in chaos.
"The most tragic thing is that for the first time ever they are targeting big-time
foreigners and five-star hotels," Chloe Papazahariakis told the Nine Network.
Her father Nick said he saw a bystander shot by terrorists just 10 metres from where
they were dining.
The federal government is attempting to contact all 300 Australians registered as
travelling in Mumbai.
Qantas confirmed its flight to Mumbai on Friday and said it stood ready to help
evacuate Australians from India.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned there could be more Australian casualties.
Officials said they were checking unconfirmed reports two Australians may have been killed in the simultaneous attacks on two luxury hotels, a restaurant, a railway station and other sites in Mumbai on Wednesday.
A 49-year-old Australian man is among more than 100 killed, the Press Trust of India said, along with a Japanese national.
A young Sydney woman has undergone surgery after she was shot through the leg, the bullet shattering her femur. Her boyfriend from Townsville suffered flesh wounds from bullets that grazed his leg.
Survivors have said the attacks were targeted at Westerners, with gunmen rounding up
terrified tourists and demanding to know their nationalities.
Parts of Mumbai remain under siege, with an unknown number of foreigners being held
by the terrorists in buildings surrounded by Indian special forces.
Mr Rudd described the attacks as murderous and said little was known about the
Deccan Mujahedeen, the group claiming responsibility for the attacks.
"But whichever group has perpetrated this attack, they are cowards, absolute cowards
and murderers," he said.
Mr Rudd joined a chorus of condemnation, as images of blood pooled on the floor at
Mumbai's main Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and at the five-star Taj Mahal and
Oberoi Trident hotels filled news bulletins.
The attack on India's stability, peace and democracy reminded the nation that
international terrorism was far from defeated, Mr Rudd said.
Officials said one member of a 12-person NSW government trade mission, which had
been staying at the Oberoi Trident, remained unaccounted for.
Another of the delegates, Garrick Harvison, an export manager for winery Yarraman
Estate, was on Thursday holed up in his hotel room waiting to be rescued.
The attacks have threatened to derail a lucrative tournament involving Shane Warne
and other cricket stars.
Cricket Australia (CA) put an immediate halt on travel plans for next week's
super-rich Champions Twenty20 League involving Warne, Test stars Mike Hussey,
Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson, and the West Australian and Victorian state teams.
"We are basically on temporary hold while we assess the situation, while we get
expert advice and while we consult all of the parties involved," a CA spokesman
said.
"I'm shocked," Warne said in Melbourne.
"We are heading to Mumbai and that (the Taj Mahal) is the hotel we are staying at. I
don't think we will be going now - why would you?"
The father of Kate Anstee, the Sydney woman shot as she dined at Mumbai's Cafe
Leopold, has praised the heroic actions of her boyfriend David Coker.
Chris Anstee said the 24-year-old could have died had Mr Coker, 23, not carried her
to safety.
"They were just sitting there and a whole lot of guys, four or five guys, just
opened fire with machine guns," Mr Anstee told AAP.
"Dave has been very quick-witted and level-headed. He grabbed Kate and picked her up."
Mr Coker's father John said his son had told him how the scene played out.
"He lay on top of her until the shooting stopped and then picked her up and carried
her outside and saw a gunman about 15 metres away and said he'll never forget the
look - (he) looked at him and (the gunman) looked at David and he said 'he didn't
shoot me dad'."
The couple had only been in Mumbai for a few hours when gunmen attacked. Ms Anstee
has undergone surgery on her shattered leg. She will remain in intensive care while
doctors wait for her condition to stabilise before they operate again.
Mr Coker is also in hospital after suffering minor bullet and shrapnel wounds. Their
mothers plan to fly to India on Friday to be with them in hospital.
Mr Coker said they had tried to flee when shooting broke out but he quickly realised
Ms Anstee was not behind him.
"I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn't walk," he
told The Courier-Mail. "I grabbed her and got out of there as soon as possible.
"They (the terrorists) looked just like boys. They are on a rampage - it's full-on."
Australian actress Brooke Satchwell hid inside a tiny bathroom cupboard for about an
hour to escape gunfire at the Taj Mahal hotel.
"It was really terrifying. There were people getting shot in the corridor. There was
someone dead outside the bathroom," she told the Ten Network.
Her partner, film editor David Gross, told how he and a group of other Australians
had huddled "silent like mice for five hours" as they listened to the gunbattle
raging inside the hotel.
But when they realised the gunmen were outside the door of the function room where
the group had holed themselves up, they began tearing down the curtains and
fashioned a 20-metre long makeshift rope.
Minutes later they had smashed open the window of their upstairs haven and shimmied
down to the debris-littered street. Then they ran for their lives.
"We started sliding out. At this stage there were embers dropping down from the
burning storeys above, there was glass all down the bottom," Gross told ABC radio.
"We just kept running until we were past it all ..."
Gross said the hours inside the Taj Mahal had been terrifying - the gunmen had
blocked the hotel's exits and the fire escapes were locked.
"We were basically forced into the corner ... we were holed up there with probably
about 75 to 100 people," he said.
"We started getting furniture, kitchen appliances ... pushing as much stuff against
the doors to barricade ourselves inside that area.
"... there were hundreds of rounds being fired and we all suddenly just realised
that they were coming this way and we weren't going to stop them."
Australian man Steve Smith said he saw two gunmen toss grenades into a restaurant at
the Taj Mahal where he was having a beer just hours earlier.
"Then they opened fire for about 10 minutes with AK-47s (semi-automatic assault
rifles)," Mr Smith told the Seven Network.
An Australian woman due to marry in Mumbai in four days said the city was in chaos.
"The most tragic thing is that for the first time ever they are targeting big-time
foreigners and five-star hotels," Chloe Papazahariakis told the Nine Network.
Her father Nick said he saw a bystander shot by terrorists just 10 metres from where
they were dining.
The federal government is attempting to contact all 300 Australians registered as
travelling in Mumbai.
Qantas confirmed its flight to Mumbai on Friday and said it stood ready to help
evacuate Australians from India.
