Injured Aussies return home from Mumbai

2 Dec 2008, 12:29 am   -   Source: AAP
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A Sydney woman shot in the Indian terrorist attacks has returned home from Mumbai, accompanied by her mother and a special medical team.

An Australian woman shot in the Mumbai terrorist attacks is back on home soil after her ordeal.

Katie Anstee, 24, was shot in Mumbai's Cafe Leopold on November 27 - her first day in the Indian city.

A bullet broke Ms Anstee's femur bone and exited through the front of her thigh during the attacks which left at least 172 people dead, including two Australians.

Her boyfriend David Coker, 23, has flesh wounds from bullets that grazed his legs in the attack.

Candy Anstee flew to Mumbai to be with her daughter and accompanied the young couple on the return flight which touched down in Sydney just after 6pm (AEDT) on Monday.

A stretcher was lifted to the plane doors before Katie Anstee was loaded onto it and taken in a waiting ambulance to North Shore Private Hospital, where she will undergo further treatment.

Ms Anstee and Mr Coker had been in India for only a matter of hours when they were caught up in the deadly attacks, in which terrorists hit two luxury hotels, a hospital, a railway station and a Jewish centre in Mumbai's financial district.

They were at the start of an 11-week holiday to celebrate their graduation from the Australian National University in Canberra.

A spokeswoman from the Attorney-General's Department, who was at the airport as the flight landed, said the family had requested privacy from the media.

Many survivors who filed off the plane, to be greeted by tearful and relieved family and friends, were also reluctant to talk to waiting media.

One man, Josh Cassidy, told of being in a bar just a street away from the Cafe Leopold when the attacks happened.

"We tried to get back to the hostel, which was just across the road from the Taj (Mahal Hotel), and we couldn't get through due to the all the cameras, all the news vans and police," he told reporters at Sydney airport on Monday evening.

"We walked back past the main street where the Leopold was and it just didn't seem right so we got a taxi and just got out of the violent area."

Mr Cassidy said he was interviewed by Australian Federal Police (AFP) when he got off the flight.

"I wasn't too stressed about it after it all happened. When it was all happening I was pretty scared, it was pretty crazy," he said.

He said he would always remember the stillness of the city in the wake of the attacks.

"A city like Mumbai, it's so busy, there's always cars and people everywhere," he said.

"Then, when I came back the next day to grab my stuff from the hostel the streets were bare ... the city just stopped."

He said he had been keen to keep travelling and continue his trip but his family wanted him home.

"I'm sure they will be pretty relieved," he said.

Sydney lawyer David Jacobs, who was trapped in the Oberoi hotel during the attacks, was embraced by his waiting family and made a plea for peace.

"We've got to stop killing each other, that's my main feeling," he said.

Another woman who didn't want to give her name or where she was during the attacks, said: "Love is stronger than terrorism".

The family of Australian man Doug Markell, who was killed in the attacks, also told of his ordeal on Monday.

Mr Markell, 71, a semi-retired businessman and former deputy mayor of Woollahra, was with his wife Alison on a tour of India when he lost his life in the attacks.

The family on Monday released a statement through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

It said Ms Markell narrowly escaped death in the corridor of the Taj Mahal Hotel, suffering minor wounds to her arm, after her husband was shot multiple times by terrorists while trying to escape a fire.

Two hotel staff who found Ms Markell hid her and later escorted her out of the hotel at great risk to their own lives, DFAT said.

"He was passionate about his family and friends, a car and skiing enthusiast, he was a keen organiser of events and loved a celebration," the statement said of Mr Markell.

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