PARIS, FRANCE - Shocked, their voices trembling, French witnesses gave harrowing accounts Friday of hiding under restaurant tables and running from explosions as India's financial hub Mumbai came under attack.

Johana, a 24-year-old tourist travelling with her cousin, was having dinner at the Leopold restaurant in Mumbai's Colaba tourist district when she spotted several young men with large rucksacks slung over their shoulders.

"They took weapons out of their sacks, lobbed three grenades and began shooting at anything that moved with their automatic weapons. There were several dead," Johana told AFP at a Paris airport soon after her arrival.

"People ran out of the restaurant while others, like us, hid under the tables. Some found refuge in the kitchens and they didn't make it," she recounted, her voice shaking.

After ten minutes of gunfire, the two terrified young travellers left the restaurant and ventured out into streets that were crowded with people looking for cover.

They heard several explosions coming from the direction of the Taj Mahal, one of two luxury hotels targeted by Islamist militants in a string of attacks that left at least 130 people dead.

French businessman Gilles Andrier said he was seated at a table with 15 financial analysts at the restaurant of the five-star Oberoi/Trident hotel when the violence erupted.

"Luckily, we were in an area of the hotel that was not targeted by the terrorists. We wondered whether we should stay or leave," said Andrier.

As panic gripped people in the streets, Andrier and others hid in hotel offices and spent the night there.

Michele Joulo and Pascal Brac were at a Colaba restaurant when they heard gunfire and suddenly Indian soldiers turned up. They instructed people to stay calm.

"We quickly went back to our hotel. We were a few hundred metres from the Taj. We saw it burning. There were explosions everywhere," said Joulo.

The couple spent the night holed up in their hotel behind a large metal gate.