'Help' Site Fills Information Gap

Within minutes of the first reports of the Mumbai terror attacks the city's vibrant community of bloggers began to respond.

A community site called Mumbai Help, which was set up following last July's floods which killed more than 1,000 people, was one of many blogs which quickly came alive.

With telephone networks jammed, the bloggers played a role in filling some of the information gaps.

Mumbai Help has at least 30 contributors, many of whom were involved with a similar site established after the tsunami on Boxing day 2004. On Tuesday they collated news reports, advised on the transport chaos, told people how to donate blood and worked to reach missing people on behalf of relatives, many from abroad. There were more than 360 comments on the "how can we help you" part of the site, which has the web address mumbaihelp.blogspot.com

With phones down, some people used the internet-telephony service Skype to contact friends, and Mumbai Help advised on how to send text messages via the web. Some of the bloggers stayed late at work using the high-speed broadband connections in the high-tech offices of India's financial hub.