Australian tells of "rampage" at Leopold Cafe in Mumbai (Extra)

Nov 27, 2008, 5:04 GMT

   Sydney - Australian holidaymaker David Coker told Thursday of how gunmen burst into the popular Leopold Cafe in Mumbai and sprayed its diners with automatic rifle fire.

   Coker, 23, was in India's financial capital with girlfriend Kate Anstee, 24, to celebrate their graduation from university.

   A bullet entered Anstee's leg, smashing her thigh bone.

   'We'd literally just ordered and then it seemed like firecrackers - people were screaming,' he said. 'I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn't walk. I grabbed her and got out of there as soon as possible.'

   After a taxi ride to the hospital, Coker discovered they were the first of the casualties to arrive from the coordinated attacks on 10 sites in Mumbai that began late Wednesday, killed 101 people and injured 287.

   'No one knew what was going on,' he said. 'We were, I think, the first people at the Bombay hospital, which is where we are now.'

   He said the attackers appeared to be young: 'They looked just like boys. They're on a rampage. It's full-on.'

   Coker had holes in his pants where bullets had passed through and grazed his flesh.

   The young Sydney couple were on the first day of an 11-week holiday that was to take them through India, on to Europe and the United States.