By Alvin Foo & Elizabeth Wilmot

SINGAPOREAN Ojas Doshi was forced yesterday to close the Mumbai office of his company Raffles PortWorks and tell the eight staff members to stay home.

The office was some distance from the violence, but he was still overwhelmed by horror as he spoke on the phone to his four-year-old daughter, who was staying with his wife's parents in the affected area. She told him about the smoke rising from the besieged Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel. Mr Doshi, 35, and his wife were at home, several kilometres away.

'To go to her means we'd have to drive past the Oberoi, which is not safe yet,' he told The Straits Times by phone, saying he was thankful she was safe.

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