Taking on killers with prayers and a penknife

A HERO Brit told last night how he plunged 50ft and broke his back trying to save his girlfriend from the Mumbai murder squad.

As gunshots drew closer and flames licked around the corridor outside their third floor hotel room, Will Pike and Kelly Doyle prayed-and knotted sheets together to make a rope to escape out the window.

Click here to see some of the harrowing scenes from Mumbai

Will, 28, said: "I could only think of Kelly's safety. That's why I went first, to make sure the rope was okay."

But it wasn't. Just 10ft into the daring 60ft descent, it gave way and he plummeted to the pavement below the Taj Mahal Palace.

Will, who was ready to defend Kelly with a penknife and cutlery from his room, added: "Clearly I never did my boy scout knot badge because my knots were rubbish.

"I remember looking up and seeing the ledge going away and the rope falling down with me.

Bone

"The next thing I was on the ground looking at shards of bone sticking out of my wrist."

He broke three bones in his SPINE, shattered his PELVIS and broke BOTH ARMS horrifically. He has no sensation in his legs and doctors are concerned he may never walk again.

Seconds after his fall, fire engines arrived to pluck Kelly from the blazing building on a hydraulic platform.

The couple's ordeal began on the final night of what had been an idyllic holiday.

After two weeks in Indian beach paradise Goa they returned to Mumbai for a night in the luxury hotel before flying home.

After checking in last Wednesday night, they popped out for a meal at The Leopold-the backpackers restaurant that, just minutes later, would be the first place the terrorists hit.

IN LOVE: Pair in Facebook snap

They went for a drink in the Taj bar at about 8.30pm, then headed up to their room.

Moments later the terrorists-intent on killing as many Westerners as they could find-burst into the hotel's lobby, detonating grenades and spraying bullets. Film-maker Will said: "I heard a crash then gunshots."

Realising that the hotel was under siege, the couple switched off the lights, heaved furniture in front of the door as a barricade and huddled in the bathroom.

Will added: "We were just sitting in the bathtub clutching each other, praying that this would not be the last time we could do that.

"The gunshots sounded really loud. They were getting closer and closer. We thought the gunmen must have been going through the rooms and executing people."

Kelly, 32, added: "Then there was a shot that sounded like it was in the room and we thought, 'That's it, we're going to be executed'.

"I was saying we should let them take us hostage but his idea was to find something sharp so we could get the gunman when he came in. There was a knife and fork in the room and a couple of glasses and we had a penknife."

Scout

It was then the couple-who live together in Camden, north London-began gathering material to make their getaway rope.

Kelly said: "We got all the sheets and cut down the curtains with scissors from a wooden stationery box on the table to be quiet, rather than pulling them down. I thought, 'S***, we're trashing the room'."

Will said: "I used double granny knots-you take two corners and tie them together and we pulled them as tight as we could. But clearly I never did my boy scout knot badge because my knots were rubbish."

Seconds later another huge blast went off nearby and they again took refuge in the bath. Then the couple heard glass breaking and the orange glow of flames through the keyhole.

Kelly said: "Will was saying, 'This is it.' We were hugging and saying 'I love you'. We did a tug of war to make sure our rope was strong enough though that turned out to be wrong."

Before they could use the rope, they had to punch through the room's double-glazed windows. Will finally did so by repeatedly ramming the window with a marble table top and the couple tied down one end of their rope.

Kelly added: "We said one last goodbye and Will started going down. I just saw the knot untangle and there was no sound and then I heard him drop to the floor.

Mangled

"I saw an ambulance turn up and they put Will on a stretcher. His hand was completely mangled and his fingers were splayed out wrong. He was moaning, 'What's going on?' " Seconds later Kelly was rescued by firemen.

She added: "I got to the hospital and Will was screaming and screaming. "I kissed him and said, 'We are fine, we are alive. It doesn't seem like it now, but we are just so lucky'."

Amazing stories of survivors of the Taj Mahal began to emerge last night. Brit Richard Farah, who spent 25 hours barricaded in his 16th-floor room until being rescued by commandos, revealed he hid his British passport in the lining of his false leg.

Furniture maker Richard, 65, whose family live in in west London, said: "If they'd come to get me they wouldn't have found it."

Businessman Paul Bean was one of 26 people who hid from the gunmen in the Taj's restaurant. The 48-year-old father of two from Wakefield, West Yorks, said: "We locked the doors and turned the lights off and lay still for pretty much seven hours."

THE Foreign Office helpline for people worried about friends or relatives in Mumbai is 0207 008 0000. More details are at www.fco.gov.uk

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