Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm currently waiting for someone to contact me about a job in India...Hmmm.

Alan Jones was in Mumbai on business, and was at the Trident Hotel, which adjoins the Oberoi Hotel, with a colleague when the attacks happened.

"We took the lift to the lobby and heard bangs as the door opened. A Japanese man, one of four men in the lift, was shot and wounded at that precise moment," he told BBC News.

"I frantically pressed the "close door" button but had to move the shot man's foot for the doors to close.

"We headed back to our rooms on the 28th floor of the hotel but were quickly instructed by staff to go to a "safe" room in the basement.

"There, we met many residents, but nowhere near all of them. After approximately an hour, we were escorted from the hotel, and, with the help of our local office, made our way back to the office we've been working at.

"It's still near the affected area but feels more secure.

"We're under the impression that there are still gunmen in the Oberoi -Trident complex, with many residents still inside."

The situation is still confused but the main train station, a hospital, a restaurant and as well as the two hotels are among those places caught up in the violence.

There are reports of gunfire and explosions taking place elsewhere in the city.

And in complete contrast, one of the most-read stories on the BBC at the moment is this one apparently.

One eyewitness said that the attackers had singled out British and American passport holders.

If this report is true, our security correspondent Frank Gardner says it implies an Islamist motive - attacks inspired or co-ordinated by al-Qaeda.

It all started when they renamed it. Who wants to eat Mumbai mix anyway?

And in complete contrast, one of the most-read stories on the BBC at the moment is this one apparently.

Quote:
One eyewitness said that the attackers had singled out British and American passport holders.

If this report is true, our security correspondent Frank Gardner says it implies an Islamist motive - attacks inspired or co-ordinated by al-Qaeda.


Er... what? Fuck off, you witless cretin. Seriously, you think that only 'islamists' would attack british or american tourists? And even if they are, how the fuck does that mean they're with al-qaeda? It's like saying "Well, this attack happened in london, therefore it must be irish guys, and they must be with the IRA". What kind of morons are paying people to make pointless speculative comments like that?

So anyway, another few hundred thousand people in the Congo have lost their homes and many of them their lives in fighting bet... oh hang on, they're black. Never mind!

Skepticism's fine, but cynicism can get unhealthy.

well, they're unlikely to be Buddist Fundamentalists are they?

That's how temping works, you trade lack of commitment for lack of security.

Today had a phone conversation with an English chap who's barricaded himself in his room in one fo the hotels. He was saying there were gunshots outside, explosions, screaming and so on, and said that "he didn't particularly feel the need to go outside and see what was going on".

Who's this Declan Mujahedeen anyway?

Doesn't he present that celebrity show with Ant McJihad?

911 bananas

BBC Witness Talkback: Andreas Liveras visited the Taj Palace Hotel for a curry on Wednesday evening, having heard that the hotel served the best food in Mumbai. But he quickly became caught up in the violence.

"I think it's got the best restaurant here. But as soon as we sat at the table we heard the machine gun fire outside in the corridor," he told BBC News.

"We hid ourselves under the table and then they switched all the lights off. But the machine guns kept going, and they took us into the kitchen, and from there into a basement, before we came up into a salon where we are now.

"There must be more than 1,000 people here. There are residents and tourists and locals. We are not hiding, we are locked in here - nobody tells us anything, the doors are locked and we are inside.

"Hotel staff are helping us a lot providing water and sandwiches - but nobody is eating really, people are frightened.

"At this moment it's very quiet. The last bomb exploded about 45 minutes ago and it shook the hotel up. Nobody comes in this room and nobody goes out, and we don't really know.

"All we know is the bombs are next door and the hotel is shaking every time a bomb goes off. Everybody is just living on their nerves."

Note: 1905 gmt 27 Nov Subsequent to this account being published it was confirmed that Mr Liveras was killed in the violence at the hotel. We have reported his death here:

1446 A huge blast has occurred at Nariman House, India's Times Now TV says. Five or six gunmen are thought to be still inside the Taj hotel, it adds.

1440 A body has been taken out of the Taj hotel and people on stretchers are also being removed, India's Times Now TV reports. Many stretchers are being taken inside so probably there are more, the TV says.


1436 The BBC's Adam Mynott says: There have been three loud explosions at the Jewish Centre at Nariman House but it remains unclear whether these were caused by attackers or security forces.

1428 Mumbai-based journalist Malini Agarwal tells BBC World that reports of the number of gunmen inside the Taj range from six to one and that there has been more shooting at Nariman House. "This death toll is definitely going to rise, I'm sure," the journalist adds.

1426 A fierce gun battle is raging at the Taj hotel while the total number of militants killed has risen to 11, India's Times Now TV reports.

1422 Fresh shots have been fired in the Nariman House area, India's Times Now TV reports.

1421 Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holzberg and his wife were among five hostages killed at Nariman House, where two militants also died, India's NDTV reports. There are no survivors, it says.

Meems - the correct answer is currently zero. There is no evidence so far that any of these terrorists were British. Hoorah our right wing xenophobic press for not trying to take any possible chance of tarring British Muslims with the Terrorist Brush again.

Meems - the correct answer is currently zero. There is no evidence so far that any of these terrorists were British. Hoorah our right wing xenophobic press for not trying to take any possible chance of tarring British Muslims with the Terrorist Brush again.

Thanks for the clarification, guys. To be fair I only saw a few newspaper headline as about 3mph, so I am not sure what the story was (apart from the (obvious) or what they cited as 'evidence', so I wasn't really sure what the angle was, which is mostly why I asked here as t'internet news on it seems varied and scattered.

I guess it'll be a while before there's any real evidence to draw on.

It'll be hard to flourish in a radioactive desert following a nuclear exchange, you idiots.