Nov 29, 2008, 2:46 GMT
Sydney - An Australian businessman freed after 42 hours of cowering in a Mumbai hotel room told Saturday of his liberation and the mixed emotions he felt.
'Being tired and not sleeping, it's hard to gain control of your emotions, and when you speak to family, speak to my wife and my kids, you just fall apart,' wine company executive Garrick Harvison told Australia's national broadcaster ABC. 'It's nice to be out now and just keep your chin up and stay positive.'
Harvison said he counted out rations of peanuts and chocolates from the minibar as guns popped and grenades exploded in the corridors outside.
He said when Indian commandoes hammered on his door at the Oberoi-Trident hotel, he was still fearful they were terrorists.
'I shouted, 'Who are you?' and then I knew there were four, five, six of them, and also the Australian Federal Police told me the uniform they would have, ... and so I just opened the door,' he said.
'I had the gun fixed on me until they could pat me down, go through my bag and quickly check my room, and then I was ushered off into a room next door, which was a safe room with a woman who was next door,' he said.
Harvison described the ravaged hotel he was finally freed from.
Whole floors and ceilings had been blown away by grenade blasts and doors and walls were pock-marked with bullet holes, he said.
On Friday, elite Indian commandos succeeded in taking control of the Oberoi-Trident and a Jewish centre by killing two militants in each operation. Two commandos were also killed.
The two sites and the Taj hotel were seized Wednesday night in coordinated strikes carried out by 20 to 22 militants who reached the shores of Mumbai by boat before unleashing a wave of attacks across India's commercial capital.
At least 148 people were killed and 327 injured, the IANS news agency reported, but Mumbai police confirmed only 125 deaths and said more than 280 people were injured.
'We believe around 83 Australians were in areas directly affected by the attacks,' Canberra officials said.
Two Australians are known to have been killed in the coordinated attacks in India's financial capital - Brett Taylor, 49, and Doug Markell, 71 - but diplomats said they fear more might have lost their lives.
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