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The lucky ones, and the not so lucky

— Photo: AFP

FREEDOM AT LAST: Guests who were caught in the Trident Hotel come out on Friday.

New Delhi: Though the number of foreigners killed in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai since Wednesday has been put at eight, a clear picture is yet to emerge.

The Union Home Ministry said on Friday that at least eight foreign nationals have died and 22 injured.

The deceased included three German nationals and one each from Japan, Canada and Australia, Special Secretary (Internal Security) M.L. Kumawat said at a press briefing. The nationality of two others was not known.

Mr. Kumawat said among those injured, five are from the U.K., three from Germany, two each from the U.S. and Oman, and one each from Norway, Spain, Canada, Finland, Philippines, Austria, Italy and China. The nationality of two others was not known. A German national Burgeroch, 51, was brought dead from the Taj Hotel to the Breach Candy hospital, where two other German nationals — Bernardelite, 45, and Benjamin Matthiys, 26, — are undergoing treatment.

At the Jaslok Hospital, three British nationals — Michael Murphy, 58, Dianne Murphy, 53, and Harsh Patel, 29, — have been admitted. Two from Oman — Al Zadjali Miran Sahil, 19, and Al Raisi Muneera Mohd, 35, — have been admitted at the Saifee Hospital. A 62-year-old Italian Juarini was admitted to the JJ Hospital, where a bullet-riddled body of a male foreigner was lying unidentified. At the KEM Hospital, 49-year-old Australian B. Gilbert Tailor, 68-year-old German Jurgan Hedros Rudalf, 73-year-old Canadian Michele Stuart Moos, 50-year-old German Sider Daffne and an unknown foreigner were brought dead.

Hisa Si Tsuda, 41, of Japan died in the Bombay Hospital, where 14 foreigners were undergoing treatment. They are Shih Fung Chen (China), Zahed (Jordan), Tan Eugene (Philippines), Helen Connolly (nationality unknown), Katherine Instee (Austria), Michael Rudder (Canada), Oskari Polcho (Finland), Axel Nordmeter (German), Arne Stromme (Norway), Maria Trossa (Spain), Simon and William Pike (both U.K.) and Andolina Vaoagta and Lind Orchistala (both U.S.).

A Mumbai report said two media reporters, a woman foreigner and a local, were among those injured.

About 30 people, many of them foreigners, emerged from the Trident Hotel on Friday, an AFP photographer said.

The guests left after a military and police rescue operation. They were ushered on to waiting minibuses before being driven away, the photographer said.

Some of the guests talked on mobile phones as they walked past reporters without commenting.

Others were carrying laptop bags or suitcases but many came out only in the clothes they were wearing. Another waved as he boarded the bus.

A New Delhi report said that the bodies of five Israeli hostages seized by Islamic militants were recovered on Friday from a Jewish centre, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi Eli Belotsercovsky, told AFP.

Indian officials said on Friday four Australians were killed and they were desperately trying to locate 37 others believed to have been at the sites hit by the terrorists.

A report from Rome said all seven Italians were freed on Friday, ANSA news agency reported. Italy’s Foreign Ministry had earlier indicated that five of those trapped had been freed.

All Japanese trapped in two hotels are believed to have now escaped, a Foreign Ministry official said in Tokyo.

Nine Kuwaitis and a Qatari Consul were among the hostages freed, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said.

France was working to repatriate up to 150 Europeans caught in Mumbai.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris that a special flight with three doctors and consular reinforcements to help people who may have lost ID papers in the attacks arrived in Mumbai on Friday.

Sixty Spanish citizens had been evacuated on a Spanish air force plane, a government source said in Madrid. — Agencies.