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On 26 November 2008, Daniela Federici had simply arrived on the Taj resort in Mumbai when she thought she heard the sound of fireworks.
The photographer and documentary maker, from Melbourne, Australia, thought it was unusual however carried on checking in to her room.
No one within the packed reception of the luxurious five-star resort, together with Daniela, knew that 10 gunman from the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba had been rampaging via the bustling Indian metropolis armed with automated rifles and grenades.
Their intention was to kill as many individuals as potential, and 4 of them had now entered the Taj.
“Folks have been falling to the ground, folks have been screaming. I ran upstairs to the bar the place my manufacturing crew have been ready,” says Daniela, who was within the metropolis to make a documentary. “We put furnishings up towards the doorways and will hear gunmen killing folks exterior.”
Daniela and her manufacturing crew later made a determined journey via the resort’s huge community of corridors and rooms earlier than barricading themselves in a ballroom.
Greater than 26 hours after gunman had entered the resort, Daniela and her crew have been hiding out in the identical room as hearth started to wrap its method across the constructing.
“All of us hugged one another and laid right down to die. We have been holding arms in a circle when the terrorists threw a grenade from a roof to hit one thing under and two of the home windows smashed.”
These within the ballroom took down the lengthy curtains earlier than tying them collectively and utilizing them to flee. Rescue staff exterior then introduced a ladder over, permitting Daniela and the remaining hostages to make their method right down to the road under.
On 29 November 2008, the four-day siege was dropped at an finish after India’s Nationwide Safety Guard performed Operation Black Twister to flush out the terrorists.
Daniela suffered panic assaults within the years that adopted as she realized to return to phrases with what she had witnessed. In Mumbai, tightened safety measures at resorts and key websites are a relentless reminder of the assault that left greater than 160 folks useless.
You possibly can take heed to Daniela’s story within the newest episode of StoryCast ’21, a Sky Information podcast telling 21 private tales from a number of the greatest information occasions of the century.
Subscribe to Storycast 21 now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Spreaker
StoryCast ’21 is telling 21 private tales from a number of the greatest information occasions of the century.
Click on the hyperlink under to discover the sequence and take heed to the entire episodes launched thus far.
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