AN OFFALY woman has described being in one of the luxury hotels attacked by terrorists in Mumbai.
Geraldine Larkin, a textile designer based in London and originally from Edenderry, was staying at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. She was in the city as she works regularly with local embroiderers and textile craftspeople there.
"I went back to the hotel after work. When I was in the bookshop in the hotel I heard some noises but I thought it was fireworks because it's wedding season now. So first of all I didn't really think anything about it. Then staff ushered us into a kitchen by the side of one of the restaurants and then we could hear lots of activity in the lobby and loud noises."
She said on RTÉ radio yesterday that no one really knew what was going on. "I was very frightened, yes, but I have to say the people who were with me and the staff could not have been more decent or more caring. They guided us into one of the restaurants in the hotel and all the men were fantastic. They pushed the piano in front of the door, put up chairs to secure the door locked."
At first they had no phone contact with outside but slowly, she said, mobile phones picked up signals and people started to get calls and information about what was happening.
"We learnt it was a group of terrorists who had gone into the lobby and opened fire, threw grenades. We were locked in so we were safe and could hear lots of activity but we didn't actually see anything."
She said she received calls from her brother, Patrick Larkin, who is based in Edenderry and he was able to give her more news about what was happening than she was able to get in the hotel.
The army arrived at the hotel later and she and the others were guided out by the staff.
"There were people pouring out on to the streets from everywhere. I thought it was over. It was just when I got back to the house and could see the televisions and could see the fire at the Taj that I realised there was a lot more to it than we experienced, that it was bigger."
