This just made me so sad. Why are they doing this? What is the point? How did it come about?
This does not make the world go round.'Boy' attackers shot Aussies in India
November 27, 2008, 3:24 pm
AAP © [Enlarge photo] An Australian student has told how rampaging gunmen shot his girlfriend during a series of coordinated terrorist strikes in India's financial capital, Mumbai.
Townsville student David Coker, 23, and his Sydney partner Katie Anstee, 24, were eating at Mumbai's Cafe Leopold 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, a law graduate and son of Federal Magistrate John Coker, suffered a bullet graze to his leg.
"We had literally just ordered and then it seemed like firecrackers - people were screaming," he told The Courier-Mail.
He said they tried to flee but he quickly realised Ms Anstee was not following him.
"I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn't walk," he said.
"I grabbed her and got out of there as soon as possible. We got into a taxi. No one knew what was going on. We were I think the first people at the Bombay hospital, which is where we are now.
"A bullet has torn a graze in my jeans and taken a groove out of my thigh and I have a few shrapnel marks including one on my left calf muscle."
He said the attackers appeared to be very young.
"They looked just like boys. They are on a rampage - it's full-on."
The couple, who met at Australian National University in Canberra, were on their first day of an overseas trip to celebrate their graduation, and had only been in Mumbai for a few hours.
Ms Anstee's father Chris says David Coker's quick thinking probably saved Katie's life.
The Sydney woman's parents say they plan to fly to the Indian city on Friday to airlift her back to Australia as soon as possible after surgery on a bullet wound to her thigh.
"They put their bags down in the hotel in Mumbai and went out to the Leopold coffee shop, which is apparently listed in Lonely Planet as a cool place to hang out, and they were just sitting there and a whole lot of guys, four or five guys ... just opened fire with machine guns," Mr Anstee told AAP.
"Dave has been very quick-witted and level-headed ... grabbed Kate and picked her up."
Ms Anstee was in intensive care in a stable condition, he said.
"It basically sounds like, as unpleasant as it has been, that it will be fine, and they're going to be airlifted back as soon as she has been allowed to be moved out of the hospital," Mr Anstee said.
"She is actually undergoing surgery, exploratory surgery and stabilisation surgery."
Mr Anstee said he and his wife Candy, from Greenwich in Sydney's north, plan to take the first Qantas flight to India on Friday to be with their daughter.
He praised Mr Coker, who is from Townsville, saying if it wasn't for his quick thinking his daughter may have been killed in the attack.
"The two of them were going on their dream trip of a lifetime. They had just graduated ... they'd worked hard and saved and done all that stuff."
Candy Anstee said she was in a state of shock over what had happened.
"They were going for 11 weeks - to India, then Europe then the US where Katie was at uni for a year," she told Fairfax.
"They were so excited about this trip, saving up for ages. We're in a state of shock."
Ms Anstee had just completed a commerce law degree in Canberra and planned to move back to Sydney after a seven-week holiday, her father said.
Up to 100 people were killed and about 100 more wounded in co-ordinated attacks by gunmen on luxury hotels, restaurants and a train station in Mumbai, Indian media said.
Maharashtra Director General of Police A N Roy was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying that about 100 people were dead.
The NDTV news channel put the death toll at 100, with 110 injured in the ongoing violence. The IBN Live channel said at least 87 people were dead.
Survivors said the attacks appeared to be aimed at Westerners, with the attackers demanding people reveal their nationalities.
An undetermined number of Western hostages are still being held.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks in emails to several media outlets, Indian media reported.
An Australian bride caught up in the terror blasts in Mumbai says the city is in chaos.
Chloe Papazahariakis told the Nine Network that Mumbai was in "total lockdown".
"I've just moved to this beautiful city to marry my husband in four days and I've got about 20 friends here for the wedding in the midst of all this chaos," Ms Papazahariakis said.
"We just can't believe it."
Ms Papazahariakis was speaking from the restaurant where her reception is to be held.
She said a nearby hospital had been bombed by terrorists and the death toll had reached 75.
"They are targeting every suburb in this city but the most tragic thing is that for the first time ever they are targeting big time foreigners and five star hotels," she said.
"There have been a lot of bombs in India and they normally target marketplaces and the poorer society but where we are at the Taj Mahal Hotel, an historical hotel, they have eight foreign hostages.
"They've got hand grenades and police are very worried they are suicide bombers.
"They are on a rampage - it's full-on and they are not stopping."
Meanwhile, father-of-the-bride Nick Papazahariakis had a lucky escape after he dined at the groom's family restaurant in central Mumbai instead of a popular tourist spot where explosions have been heard.
Speaking from the restaurant with nine other Australians about 300 metres from a hotel where hostages are being held, he said friends had suggested the alternative.
"We've been very busy organising things for the wedding and some of our friends... they said we might as well go to this other restaurant, Indian restaurant with some great food, instead of going to a popular tourist restaurant and that was the decision," he told Sky News.
He said the city is under siege and the diners are unable to move from the restaurant.
"We're very close to where everything is happening," he said.
"They killed somebody around 15 metres from where we are.
"We can't go anywhere because the roads are all closed, so we're waiting and listening to news...
"You don't know what to believe at the moment, who is on which side," he said.
Mr Papazahariakis' daughter's wedding is scheduled for December 3 and 22 Australians have been invited to the official ceremony.
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