An innocent farewell turned into a nightmare when the top brass of the Unilever gathered to bid adieu to the retiring Unilever group chief executive Patrick Cescau, and welcome his successor, ex-Nestle head Paul Polman. Also present were Harish Manwani, president, Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe; Nitin Paranjpe, managing director and CEO of HUL; former HUL chairmen Keki Dadiseth and Ashok Ganguly; finance director and vice-chairman D Sundaram, as well as former vice-chairman MK Sharma, with their wives. The entire group, while approaching the Gateway Room in Taj for dinner, was met with the most deafening sounds of exploding grenades and indiscriminate firing. The group was informed of the vicious attack by a heavily armed terrorist team, which had laid siege to the hotel.

The entire team was asked to lie flat on the floor but very soon the room got filled with smoke and a window had to be broken to release the smoke. It was only after the fire fighting team reached the hotel at around 3.30- 4 am that the entire group escaped through the window of the Gateway Room, via the fire tenders ladders with the help of the fire-fighters. The safety of the entire team was confirmed by the official release of the company.

Meanwhile some 200 people were stuck inside a hall at the Taj last night and efforts were being made to save maximum number of people. Ispat Industries Commercial Director Vinod Garg and his wife were at a business dinner with the company's customers from Spain, at the Trident Hotel in South Mumbai. No confirmation is available on whether they have also left the hotel. About seven to eight terrorists are still inside the Trident.