Live Blog: Bombay under Siege XVII

6.45 p.m.

Following is the story of Mark Abell, a British National who shut himself in his room in Oberoi Hotel for a whole day and night before he was rescued.

He (Mark Abell, a British National)told the BBC it had been "very grim" and he had been just a few floors away from the worst violence in the hotel. "I was on the 23rd floor, my colleague was on the 20th floor, and as far as we know all the action was on the 19th floor.

"We were too close for comfort and throughout the night, the whole thing was punctuated by a series of explosions. "Towards the end of the night it started to quieten down and I was communicating on my Blackberry with other people who were in a similar position and we slowly started to get a picture that we would be evacuated."


The lobby was carnage - there was blood and guts everywhere - it was very upsetting.

"There was a knock on the door and there was an entourage of heavily armed military, hotel staff and the police." Asked what was going through his mind at that point, he said: "I'm going home, going to see my children, going to see my wife." He then described how he was taken downstairs in the lift.

"The lobby was carnage - there was blood and guts everywhere - it was very upsetting. "Just before I went to my room I'd had dinner in the Kandahar restaurant and I've now just found out that that's one of the places it started and unfortunately the waitress who served us was one of the first to get shot." Sir Gulam Noon, another British businessman, was also forced to barricade himself and several colleagues into a room at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

They entered and looked through our passports and scouted around to see if anyone was harbouring terrorists or attackers. He said they were all afraid that at any time the gunmen would kick the door down and, at one stage, smoke from a fire started seeping into the room.

"Then it was a panic situation," he said. "We could feel it in our throats. We knew it was serious."

Eventually, all six were rescued from a balcony by a fire crew, and lowered to safety.

He told the BBC: "I hope, and I'm sure, like Londoners, Bombayites are resilient, brave and will withstand this onslaught on the city."

Fellow Briton Nicole Griffen said she was rescued by Indian special forces from the Taj Mahal Palace hotel."They entered and looked through our passports and scouted around to see if anyone was harbouring terrorists or attackers," she told BBC's Radio 5 Live.

We were then told to wait with fellow guests, while other floors and rooms were checked, she added. Read full story.