Taj hotel warned of attack

2008-11-30 16:12

Mumbai - The management of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai was warned it was a possible target, but increased security measures were eased shortly before the devastating militant attack, its owner said on Sunday.

Ratan Tata said the extra protection, which kept cars away from the hotel's front entrance, would not have prevented the assault.

"If I look at what we had ... it could not have stopped what took place," Tata told CNN.

"It's ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did have some measures," said Tata, chairperson of the Tata Group which owns the Taj hotel chain.

"People couldn't park their cars in the portico, where you had to go through a metal detector," he said, without giving further details.

'They knew what they were doing'

Tata said the attackers entered through the back of the hotel.

"They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements are in the front," he said.

"The first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler," he added. "There seems to have been a lot of pre-planning."

Tata said emergency services had been badly hampered during the crisis, with firefighters taking three hours to arrive when fires broke out.

The Taj's general manager lost his whole family in the attacks but was determined that it would re-open as a tribute to them and a sign the militants had not won, Tata said.

- AFP