Kabir Ali escapes Mumbai attacks by sheer luck

London, Nov 28 (UNI) Former England pacer Kabir Ali managed to escape the terror attacks in Mumbai's Taj Hotel with a last minute change in plan.

Kabir, currently playing for Worcestershire, had been in the Taj Hotel on the afternoon of November 26 and was due to have dinner there that night.

However, he changed his plan at the last minute and decided to go for a movie which got him late for the dinner, thereby managing to escape the violence.

''I should have been at the hotel by 9pm, about half an hour before the shooting started,'' Kabir was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.

''I don't know why I changed my mind. For some reason something told me not to go and I went to the cinema instead. I started watching the film, but it soon became obvious something was wrong.

Some people ran out of the cinema.

''Then I received a text telling me what was happening and I got out. There was panic outside. There were sirens and bangs and people running. It was chaos,'' he added.

UNI XC RAR RKM UCS2004