01 December 2008

Remote chance of more Mumbai victims

According to Reuters and ABC Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith says he cannot rule out the remote possibility of more Australian victims of the Mumbai attacks until all the bodies of those killed have been identified.

Mr Smith says the most severely injured of the four wounded Australians is on her way home accompanied by her family and a consular official.

Kate Anstee, 24, from Sydney, was shot in the leg when gunmen attacked the Cafe Leopold, near the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

All the Australians who were registered with DFAT in Mumbai have been accounted for but Mr Smith says he cannot be sure every Australian is safe until Indian authorities have identified all the casualties of the attack.

"The only, now, I hope, remote, possibility is that there's an Australian who we didn't know about amongst the victims in the hotels," he said.

"It's a remote possibility. I can't completely discount it."

Mr Smith has also called for calm between India and Pakistan as tensions escalate over the attacks.

Home Affairs Minister Shivraj Patil has resigned, saying he takes moral responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, and National Security Adviser MK Narayaman has also offered his resignation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is urging India's political parties to unite and has called an emergency all-party meeting to discuss the crisis.

There were several demonstrations in Mumbai overnight as people vented their frustration and grief.

India's intelligence agencies are accused of failing to provide any public warning that a terrorist attack was imminent.

This morning there were reports that US anti-terrorism experts had warned Indian authorities at the start of October that Mumbai faced a possible terrorist attack from the sea.

The gunmen who staged last week's attacks are believed to have come ashore in one or more high-powered rubber dinghies.

The death toll from the attacks has now been revised down to 172.

As the city gets back to normal, the Cafe Leopold briefly reopened overnight.

One of the owners, Farzad Jehani, said he wanted to demonstrate to the world that the city would not be scared into closing down.

"Within three days of what has happened, we have pulled the shutters up," he said.

"My staff has supported me." "Without fear, they have come back and they have come back to re-open this place."

So many people gathered outside the cafe that police ordered it to shut again for safety reasons.

A Report by The Mole