[Brooke Satchwell] said guests locked themselves in toilet cubicles as “people were being shot in the hallways”, but then they began looking for somewhere safer.

“I found out they were targeting foreigners and ringing up to people’s rooms and asking staff to hand over passports and asking British and American citizens to come downstairs. Obviously that was quite a concern.” Among those travelling with Satchwell was her boyfriend, David Gross, son of Sydney QC Bernard Gross.

He told a reporter: “I can’t even get my leg dressed; we can’t go to the airport — that’s been bombed. We can’t go to the police centres — they’ve been bombed.

AUSTRALIAN actor Brooke Satchwell, best known for her role in Neighbours, hid inside a cupboard on the ground floor of the Taj Mahal Hotel for an hour as gunshots rang out around her.

She described the experience as “terrifying”, saying she could hear people being shot in the hotel corridors and had fled past dead bodies in the lobby as she left the hotel.

Satchwell, 28, had just arrived in Mumbai to begin a three-week shoot and was having her first production meeting with fellow crew members.

“I slipped downstairs to have a smoke and stopped at the bathroom on the ground floor on the way back in,” she told radio personality Neil Mitchell in Melbourne.

“As I stepped into the bathroom you could hear gunfire start up in the lobby; everyone just froze.”

Satchwell said guests locked themselves in toilet cubicles as “people were being shot in the hallways”, but then they began looking for somewhere safer.

“The staff let us hide in a service cupboard. We sat in there listening to machinegun fire.”

She said two of the male staff were sticking their heads out to see what was going on.

“They were reporting that there was a dead body outside the bathroom and they were seeing people being shot in the hallways. There was a lot of confusion; we all felt like sitting ducks.”

Satchwell said after about an hour security staff led her and others out through the hotel lobby, past dead bodies and into the street.

But she quickly realised the streets were not safe, especially for tourists.

“It became very clear that being out and about was not very safe and foreigners were a strong target.”

She said she had stayed in contact with the rest of the film crew via SMS.

She said “the guys” were under the false impression that the police and army were already in control, but she could see that was notthe case.

“I found out they were targeting foreigners and ringing up to people’s rooms and asking staff to hand over passports and asking British and American citizens to come downstairs. Obviously that was quite a concern.” Among those travelling with Satchwell was her boyfriend, David Gross, son of Sydney QC Bernard Gross.

Mr Gross reportedly cut his leg fleeing from the famous Cafe Leopold.

He said he had been uncertain where to flee to during the harrowing experience.

He told a reporter: “I can’t even get my leg dressed; we can’t go to the airport — that’s been bombed. We can’t go to the police centres — they’ve been bombed.

Satchwell’s agent, Nathan Morris, said Satchwell was now keeping a low profile and trying to get advice from DFAT on how to get home.

“I believe it is still very tense up there,” he said.

Satchwell stars in the upcoming Australian film Subdivision.

She described the attack as “vicious, senseless”.

“I feel sorry for the Indian people,” she said.

She said that as she left the hotel she saw dead bodies with blood-soaked shirts lying on the ground. “I ran as quickly as I could,” she said.

At the same time, her boyfriend was trapped on the first floor of the hotel. He told the Nine Network how he had to smash a window of the historic hotel and wrapped curtain drapes together to form a rope to escape.

The group Satchwell was travelling with included Anthony Rose, a Sydney television director, as well as photographers, camera operators and other staff.

Credit: John Stapleton