Mumbai attacks: 'They were very young, like boys really'
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/26/art.indiabombing.jpg]
Rhys Blakely
Times Online
One of the first indications that something was very wrong came at 10.30pm, when two men were seen brandishing AK-47 rifles and grenades in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Bombay's magnificent main railway station. Seconds later, passengers were sent fleeing for their lives as the men sprayed the concourse with automatic gunfire. Within minutes, Bombay's security forces were being inundated by news of a horrifying wave of terror attacks across this city of 18 million people.
A five-minute car journey south from the station, next to the Gateway of India, Bombay's most famous landmark, gunmen were storming the lobby of the city's finest hotel: the Taj Mahal Palace. Armed with bombs, they were seeking British and American citizens, witnesses said.
"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," Rakesh Patel, a stunned British guest at the Taj, told an Indian television channel. He said he had been among about a dozen foreigners who had been herded together by two heavily armed men and taken up to the hotel's upper floors.
"They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof," he said. He and another hostage had managed to escape when they reached the 18th floor, he said.
As he was speaking to the camera, there was a loud explosion from the roof of the hotel.
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Filed under: India • India Attacked • Raw Politics • Terrorism |
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I am from Sri Lanka,
We have been dealing with terrorist for more than 30 years. We are the very best in dealing with terrorists.
I think this is high time, this has happened to India, Thamilnandu political leaders & organizations support terrorist (LTTE terrorist) in Sri Lanka. They just got the taste of their own medicine.
Also the handing of the situation is not mature from Indian authorities. They could have just given a call to Sri Lanka. The elite forces will come to help them.
Time to realize terrorist are terrorist no matter which angle you look at it.
– Mindika –
It is definitely high time that intelligence agencies all nations unite in forming a global anti-terorrism sqad – using combined expertise from all national agencies (MI5, FBI, Mossad...) to eradicate this plague which is spreading to all countries! The longer we sit and watch, the more difficult it gets to tackle this issue...its already too late!
I think it'd be very naive for us to think that this type of coordinated attack won't happen here in America. I'm at a loss of what to say just seeing the pictures on CNN.