TEARS flowed and there were hugs all round.

For several Singaporeans who flew home from Mumbai yesterday morning, the sight of Changi Airport had never meant so much before.

Their relief at finally having made it home safe and sound is understandable - after all, they had just escaped the hellish cauldron back in Mumbai.

One of the Singaporeans, Ms Chen Suwen, a bank officer, was so emotional that she hugged her husband for a full 30 seconds after passing through the immigration gates.

Their eyes misted as they embraced each other, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

Her husband, along with two of her colleagues, had been waiting for her at the arrival hall of Terminal 3.

As Ms Chen had left India in a haste, she had only her handbag with her. Her luggage was left behind in the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Ms Chen, who is in her 30s, said that she had been sent on a brief working trip to Mumbai and was supposed to return on Thursday.

But the militants' attack on Wednesday night left her trapped in the hotel for 16 hours.

Initially, she did not suspect anything amiss even when she heard gunshots and explosions.

She said: 'We didn't know what happened. We just slept as usual.'

Then at midnight, a colleague called to tell her that her hotel had been hit by terrorists armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers.

She told Shin Min Daily News: 'I heard many gunshots but I didn't know what was going on.

'The colleague told me that we would be rescued very soon. I was told that the security forces would be evacuating hotel guests level by level.

'I was trapped for 16 hours and left the hotel only at 1pm on Thursday.'

Not nervous

She said she was not nervous as her colleague kept her updated on the situation at her hotel.

One colleague who received her at the airport suggested that she take a few days off work for a short holiday to get over the ordeal, but she declined.

She said: 'There's no need. Don't have to go anywhere.'

Then, her husband butted in, saying: 'She won't be flying again.'

Another Singaporean who returned from Mumbai yesterday morning was Mr Zhou Yingxiong, who works in the finance industry.

Mr Zhou, 48, arrived on SQ423 from Mumbai at 8.30am.

He said his room was on the ninth floor at the Taj and was not occupied by the terrorists. Still, he had to stay in his room for almost 24 hours.

He said that he was in his room at about 8pm on Wednesday. At 10pm, he received a call from a hotel employee informing him of the situation and telling him to stay in his room.

'I called my family and colleagues immediately to tell them that I was safe. As I couldn't switch on the TV, I got the latest updates about the situation through the Internet.'

He said he had chocolates to help him stave off hunger.

Help came only at about 7pm on Thursday. Security forces took him from his room to the main lobby, where he met with representatives from the Singapore embassy.

He was taken to the embassy for dinner before officials arranged for his flight home.

On his way out of the hotel, he said: 'I saw a lot of blood stains. But the corpses had already been cleared away by then. As the hotel had been burning, the area was quite dark.'

Mr Zhou was at least composed enough to be interviewed. Not so a woman, who was so distraught that she declined to recount her experience.

The bespectacled woman said only that she was in the finance industry, that she stayed on the ninth floor at the Taj Mahal and had gone to Mumbai for work.

She said she was still 'very stressed' and then left the airport in a cab.

This story was first published in The New Paper on Nov 29, 2008.