Fed: Up to four Australians killed in Mumbai: Indian officials
28 Nov 2008 2:32 PM
SYDNEY, Nov 28 AAP - Indian officials say four Australians have been killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, as the Australian government warned the nation to "expect the worst".
So far two Australians have been confirmed dead, Sydney timber merchant Brett Taylor, 49, and Sydney grandfather and former Woollahra deputy mayor Doug Markell, 71.
Friends and family members have confirmed both deaths.
Officials from India's Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, said the dead included at least four Australians, a Japanese, an Italian, a Briton and a German.
Officials in Canberra have so far confirmed only one Australian death.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said investigations were ongoing into eyewitness accounts suggesting a second Australian had been killed.
Indian special forces are continuing "mopping up" operations at the luxury Taj Mahal and Oberoi/Trident hotels, which were attacked by terrorists armed with grenades and machine guns on Wednesday.
Some of the terrorists who had been holding hostages, including Westerners, have been shot dead.
Special forces were going room to room at both hotels on Friday, looking for victims and survivors. There were no gun battles or blasts.
Fires at both hotels were out on Friday.
Mr Smith said officials still did know the fate of up to 26 Australians believed to have been caught up in the attacks.
"But we fear as many as 25 or 26 Australians could be in the hotels," he told reporters in London. He later said some Australians had come out of the Taj Mahal hotel.
Simon Crean, who is acting foreign minister while Mr Smith is in London, warned Australians should "expect the worst".
"We not only have the fears, but one has to expect the worst," Mr Crean told the Seven Network.
He put the number of Australians caught up in the hotel violence at "roughly 70".
"The 125 dead overall, the 300 injured, hostages taken unknown - you'd have to think that in the context of that sort of mix there would be more Australians involved, but it is not clear at this stage to what extent."
Mr Taylor, from North Turramurra on Sydney's north shore, was with a NSW trade delegation staying at the Oberoi/Trident.
He was shot during the attacks and pronounced dead on arrival at St George's Hospital in South Mumbai late on Wednesday.
Nephew Matt Taylor, who worked with his uncle at the family's Blacktown Timber company, said Mr Taylor had died en route to hospital from the besieged hotel.
"I'd like him to be remembered as a very loyal family man and that he did live for his family," he told ABC Radio.
"It's a very tragic time for everybody involved and we plan on continuing his memory and continuing to further the business in his memory."
Mr Markell and his wife Alison were on an organised tour of India and were staying in Mumbai when the attacks broke out, family friend John Young said.
Mr Young said he wasn't sure which hotel the couple had been staying in, but said they were believed to have been in a hotel restaurant when the terrorists launched their assaults.
They had been due to arrive back in Australia on Friday or Saturday.
"We couldn't believe it. It was a hell of a shock," Mr Young said, describing the semi-retired businessman and grandfather of three as a "marvellous person".
Mr Young said he was not sure whether Mr Markell was also with the trade delegation Mr Taylor had been with.
Meanwhile, the mothers of a young Australian couple shot in the attacks have abandoned plans to fly to Mumbai after news the couple will be evacuated over the weekend.
Townsville law graduate David Coker, 23, and his Sydney partner Katie Anstee, 24, were eating at Mumbai's Cafe Leopold on the first day of their holiday when the gunmen opened fire, shooting Ms Anstee through the leg.
The bullet broke her femur and exited through the front of her thigh. Mr Coker suffered a bullet graze to his leg.
Ms Anstee has undergone one operation and her leg has been put in traction, while Mr Coker is up and walking after having X-rays to search for shrapnel.
The couple's mothers had planned to fly to Mumbai as early as Friday night, but Mr Coker's uncle, Michael Fellows, said they had now abandoned those plans as the couple's travel insurers were arranging for them to be evacuated and brought back to Australia by Sunday.
"The latest information is it looks like they will be able to medically evacuate Katie to Australia by Sunday," Mr Fellows said.
"If that can be confirmed then obviously the mothers won't fly over to India just to turn around and come straight back."
Indian officials said 119 people were killed and 288 injured when teams of heavily armed attackers launched assaults on the two hotels, a railway station, a hospital and other sites on Wednesday.
The news wire agency AFP has put the death toll at more than 125.
Survivors say the attackers appeared to be targeting Westerners, particularly Britons, Americans as well as Jewish people.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has joined with other world leaders in condemning the attacks.
