Canada's Consul General Gary Luton in Mumbai, narrowly escapes; visits Canadian actor Michael Rudder in hospital

Canada's consul general in Mumbai was himself among those who were caught up in the chaos during a terror rampage in India's financial capital that finally came to an end Saturday with at least 195 people dead, two of them Canadian.

In an interview with The Canadian Press from Mumbai, Gary Luton – originally from Brantford, Ont. – described how he narrowly escaped getting caught in the crossfire when the violence first broke out Wednesday evening.

Luton, 50, had stopped for tea near the Colaba Causeway – a cafe-lined tourist street favoured by expatriates behind the Taj Mahal Hotel – when shots rang out.  "They evacuated the cafe, saying there were gunshots on the Colaba Causeway," Luton said of one particular establishment not far from his location. "Oddly enough, I'd had lunch at that cafe earlier in the day."

Luton decided to seek refuge in the safest place he could think of: the Taj itself. Little did he know the landmark hotel was itself becoming a major flashpoint for the attack.

"I headed in that direction – until I heard gunshots being fired there, and then sought refuge in a friend's house that was four or five houses down from the Taj hotel."  Luton spent half the night there, and the other half outside the Taj, waiting for any Canadian guests to emerge.

"That turned out not to be the case."

Among the 21 Canadians who were inside the Taj and Oberoi hotels, two Canadians were killed and two wounded.

For 27-year-old Rob Maxwell of Toronto, two telephone messages are the only contact he's had so far with his mother Marsha, a retired teacher who was in the Oberoi at the time of the attacks  "The elevators are out, the bottom windows of the hotel have been smashed out – I'm basically fine, but we're sort of being just held here, indefinitely," the 62-year-old woman says in the message, her voice calm.  "All communication is cut off. We have light and everything, but the TVs have been cut off. We have an outside line for long distance, but we can't make any local calls. So you're the only person I can talk to."  In a later message, she says she's made it to the Canadian consulate unscathed.  "I'm grateful for everything that these people are doing to help my mom," Maxwell said. "I am grateful beyond words to the Indian police who got her out of there."

Alison Nankivell, a mother of two from Ottawa who works for Canada's Export Development Corporation in Beijing, was also trapped in the Oberoi, her father-in-law Neville said Saturday.  "She was very strong throughout the whole ordeal," he said. ``And I'm sure it helped immensely to have her husband in touch with her all the time, too. Great invention, those Canadian BlackBerrys – (they were) texting all the time."

Luton described the attacks as a blow not only to India, but to its expatriate community.  "We're all expatriates in these two locations quite frequently. It's where you buy your newspapers, you do some shopping," he said.  "We know doormen, we know managers. I knew quite well the manager of the Taj, who was killed along with his family .... So it's a small community. And they have hit at the core of that community."

Toronto yoga instructor Helen Connolly, who was grazed by a bullet, has since been released from hospital; Montreal actor Michael Rudder remains in hospital in stable condition, recovering from gunshot wounds to the arm, thigh and torso.

Luton said he visited the injured Canadian in hospital Saturday, but said it's not known yet when he will be well enough to return home.  "Now that he's in a position to speak, it was an opportunity to meet with him, learn how he's doing, see if he needed anything in particular and just to learn a little bit about how he got into that situation," Luton said.

"We were there with the doctors, and a Canadian doctor who works with the consulate. And according to physicians he's on the road to recovery, but of course he is in intensive care and did suffer gunshot wounds."  Rudder and Connolly were in India on a meditation retreat with the Synchronicity Foundation, a U.S.-based spiritual organization.

Of the Canadians killed, only one – Montreal physician Dr. Michael Moss – has been publicly identified. Luton said the consulate would help families arrange to bring the bodies back to Canada if necessary.

The consulate remains in regular contact with police, and has been trying to piece together identity cards, various suitcases and other belongings that were left behind by Canadians.  "People obviously left where they were in a hurry, in a panic. Jackets with wallets got left behind, passports, purses, all of those kinds of things."

The consulate in Mumbai and the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa has received numerous calls from family and friends during the crisis, said Luton. Some Canadians came to the consulate the day they were released.  "We got them talking to relatives to make sure they knew as soon as we did they'd been released, making travel arrangements."

About half of the 17 Canadian survivors are either leaving India or have already left, while another four have continued on their travels. One couple is staying in India on work permits.

Luton said information is still coming in about who was registered at the hotels, which were heavily damaged during the siege.  "We're still waiting for hotel lists that are detailed enough that can give us a better idea if anyone's missing."