Eyewitness Accounts: 'We Were Ready to Die'

Again, there are Terrorists, who have misinterpreted the Koran.
We kill babies, but are against it when those that made it, are killed. No difference. You abortionists have reduced the dignity of life down to the point now where your own life is now meaningless.
The Democrats nary mentioned once, inherent Muslim terrorism, during the campaign. Well here it is again. Live and well and no further than the corner Mosque.
Maybe life will begin to take on renewed meaning for the Democrats that just voted in effect a Terrorist.

Amrita Jhaveri, a jewelry consultant from Mumbai who lives in London, was having dinner last night at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower's Wasabi Restaurant with her British husband when they heard gunfire. Hotel staff led the guests from the restaurant down a corridor, through the kitchen into the private club called "Chambers." Guests from other restaurants at the hotel were also brought to the Chambers.

The staff turned the lights off urged everyone to stay calm and quiet and turn off their mobile phones because terrorists were in a gun battle in the room next door, the dining room of the Chambers club. About 200 people were gathered.

"We were expecting the worst," Ms. Jhaveri said. "We knew the hotel was on fire, we knew there were terrorists next door. We knew they might storm the room any second, the fire might engulf us, an explosive might go off. It seemed too many things were stacked against us. We were ready to die."

One man died in the room, apparently of an aneurism. There were many westerners in the room and groups of Indians at the hotel for weddings in the family. The hotel pianist was there.

At about 4 a.m., the hotel staff tried to lead the group outside the hotel. But no sooner did the group begin to head down a corridor than gunshots rang out and the guests fell over one another in fright, dashing back into the room. "We had no idea if we'd be there for one day or five days," she said. "The uncertainty was terrifying."

Ms. Jhaveri worried the terrorists would storm in and pick her British husband out of the crowd. "We decided we wouldn't be separated. It didn't matter if we had to die, we wanted to be with one another," she said.

With the bathrooms overflowing, she and others tried to find places to relieve themselves -- peeing in glasses behind the bar.

When she was finally led outside the hotel at 9 a.m. into awaiting buses, she heard guns fired from overhead.

"It was a very long, very hairy night," she said.

—Geeta Anand

Hospital In Chaos

Peter Keep, a Mumbai –based entrepreneur, went to a local Mumbai hospital to help a friend who had been shot in the attacks. He counted more than 40 dead bodies and an equal number of Injured, including foreigners.

"It was just chaos with doctors and nurses running around and lots of blood everywhere," he said. "There was a British national who had just arrived here with plans to wander around India and he had two or three gunshot wounds in his chest."

After returning to his home a block from the Taj Mahal Hotel and Café Leopold's, both of which were attacked, he heard explosions and gunshots throughout the night. From the roof of his home, he watched the Taj burn as a fire threatened to engulf the towering red dome that is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Mumbai.

"It's familiar, it's iconic and even if it represents nothing more than a beautiful old building to see it ablaze like that is just shocking," Mr. Keep said.

Thursday morning he watched as they started bringing bodies out of the hotel. "The authorities have been bringing out a load of bodies. About one dozen ambulances have come and they have been reversing them into the entrance," he said.

—Eric Bellman

Blood at Café Leopold

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KagarxBlcc]

Farhang Jehani is the owner of Café Leopold's a favourite hang out for backpackers and other travelers behind the Taj Mahal hotel. It is always packed with mostly foreign nationals enjoying its inexpensive food and beer as well as its open view to the bustling street life of Colaba Causeway.

Between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Wednesday night, two gunmen who appeared to be in their mid 20s pull out machine guns and opened fire on the restaurant full of evening dinners. The crowd scattered but more than 10 people were shot, he said. "It is still just like it was left," Mr. Jehani said later. "There is blood all over and not one table is standing. They are all upside down."

The gunmen moved on after shooting and the injured were stuffed into private cars and Mumbai's trademark tiny yellow and black taxis. The police didn't show up for 20 minutes. "We used whatever vehicle was available," Mr. Jehani said.

The street however had become a big quiet traffic jam as everyone, after hearing the gunshots on the busy street, had just left their cars and ran.

"The street was deserted, it was totally empty as people just stopped, got out of their cars and ran away from the commotion," Mr. Jehani said.

—Eric Bellman

Sushi Chef at Taj Mahal Hotel

As many as 40 people remained hostage in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel & Resort in Mumbai on Thursday after Wednesday night's terrorist attacks. Noriyuki Kanda, sushi chef at the Wasabi restaurant in the Taj Mahal, who managed to escape after more than 12 hours holed up in the hotel, spoke on the telephone on his experience during and after the assault.

Mr. Kanda was making sushi at the fine nouveau Japanese restaurant on the second floor of the Taj. The small restaurant with stunning views of the Arabian Sea is a favorite of company executives and Bollywood stars when there were some explosions.

"I was working and we heard a lot of noise, I had only heard gunfire on television before so we weren't sure what it was. Then we heard rapid fire like a machine gun and people rushed in from the bar downstairs and said that four men were shooting people in the lobby."

Mr. Kanda and the rest of the staff led the customers through the kitchen and the back hallways for employees, some of which were filled with smoke. Some went back to their rooms and some tried to find the exit.

Mr. Kanda was holed up in his room for hours, keeping tabs on the situation through his cell phone because the telephones and television were cut off. In the morning the power was cut off and he heard explosions again.

Through his network of other employees around the building he heard that a group of hostages were taken to the Taj club (a members only area where the rich eat and drink) and then there was an explosion there. He heard that the lobby is covered in blood. He also heard that there was an explosion at the employees rear exit.

Mr. Kanda managed to escape shortly before 2 pm local time. He said he saw a few bodies and so much blood in the lobby that disinfectant had been put down.