From Under Beds, Tables, and 'other People's Blood' - Tales of Survival

Victims of Mumbai's terror attacks gave remarkable accounts of their survival last night, describing how they barricaded themselves into hotel rooms, hid beneath tables or pretended to be dead in order to escape rampaging gunmen.

Joey Jeetun, 31, a British backpacker, said "other people's blood" saved his life when militants opened fire in the Leopold Cafe. The moment the attack started, he said, a "local man" pushed him to the floor out of the line of fire.

"He said: 'Get down, get down, don't speak.' I just curled myself in the smallest ball I could and closed my eyes. The gunfire was sporadic. It sounded like they sprayed everyone and then looked to see who was alive and then started shooting at them on the floor.

"I was covered in other people's blood and I think that is what saved me. I was just hoping that if I stayed still they would think I was already dead. After about five minutes it stopped and I opened my eyes. There were dead people next to me who had been shot in the head. There was blood everywhere."

Harnish Patel, a 29-year-old Briton sitting at a nearby table in the cafe, was also fortunate to survive. "I was so lucky. The guy just took one look at me and showered the whole side of the bar - chairs and table and everything. He just let loose," he told the London Evening Standard. "Luckily he didn't keep his finger down - because if he did, I'd be gone."

The cafe, the first of the militants' targets, was the scene of chilling carnage. "They took weapons out of their sacks, lobbed three grenades and began shooting at anything that moved with their automatic weapons," Johanna, a 24-year-old French tourist, told Indian television. "People ran out of the restaurant while others, like us, hid under the tables. Some sought refuge in the kitchens and they didn't make it."

Dozens of foreigners were released yesterday from the Oberoi Trident hotel, 36 hours after militants took the building. One man, in a chef's uniform, emerged holding a small baby.

Another child, two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, was somehow smuggled out of the ultra-orthodox Jewish center, also taken by militants, before commandos stormed the building. Moshe's grandfather told Israel radio that he had no news of the boy's parents. Commandos found five dead hostages inside, including a rabbi and his wife.

Among those rescued from the Oberoi was Mark Abell, a British businessman who told the BBC he locked himself in his room "surrounded by explosions, gunshots and people screaming" with no food and little water.

"We were too close for comfort and throughout the night, the whole thing was punctuated by a series of explosions," he said. "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," he added.

Many survivors escaped death while staying in touch with relatives at home on their mobile phones. Linda Bean, 47, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said her husband, Paul, 48, a businessman, had called her in hushed tones from the Taj hotel, where he was hiding beneath a table, bullets screeching over his head. The phone cut off, but he managed to escape through a window.

Prashant Mangeshikar, 52, an Indian doctor in the foyer of the same hotel, said he and his family had been saved by a member of staff named Rajan. They were confronted by a gunman who "just fired", he said. "We were in sort of a single file. The man in front of my wife shielded us. He was a maintenance staff. He took the bullets."

Mangeshikar and others dragged Rajan into a nearby room, where they attempted to stem his bleeding for 12 hours. He was later taken to hospital, but it was not known if he survived.