November 30, 2008	Sunday	Zilhaj 1, 1429

LONDON, Nov 29: Sir Gulam Noon, the Indian-born food entrepreneur who helped popularise curry in Britain, told on Saturday of his terror as he hid from attackers who killed scores of people in a Mumbai hotel.

Noon, dubbed the “Curry King” by British media, said he barricaded himself in his rooms at the Taj hotel for nine hours as gunfire rang out before he was rescued by the emergency services.

“I could see the smoke coming along the corridor. The gunfire was continuous all night. We saw two terrorists on our floor,” he told the Times newspaper.

“It was a very frightening experience, you had no idea whether they were going to shoot down the door and enter.” He previously told the paper that he had intended to eat in the hotel’s restaurant but felt slightly ill, so had dinner in his suite instead.

“It probably saved my life, the restaurant was the first place the terrorists went,” he said.

The firm set up by Noon, Noon Products, specialises in making chilled and frozen ready meals of dishes such as chicken tikka masala. The Mumbai-born businessman received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.

The death toll from the attacks in Mumbai was at least 195.—AFP