Indians in NZ anxious for news of loved ones

Indian communities in New Zealand spent frantic hours yesterday texting and emailing friends and family after the bomb attacks at Mumbai.

Leading community figures said last night that they had yet to hear of anyone who had lost people close to them, but with the death toll likely to rise, they feared that could change.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters condemned the attacks as a "co-ordinated act of cowardice" and said it was too early to know whether any New Zealanders had been caught up in the atrocities.

Auckland Indian Association president Chandubhai Daji said he was "shocked and saddened. Our members come from that area and we've not heard of anyone directly affected, but it's early days."

Vaibhav Gangan, editor of monthly online magazine Global Indian, which is read by about 20,000 New Zealand Indians, said many Indians here were hoping the attack was not the start of a series of terrorist actions against the country.

India's High Commissioner to New Zealand, Kadakath Pathrose Ernest, said he joined "all people of goodwill in condemning these heinous acts of terrorism" against defenceless civilians.

The people of India had suffered several acts of terrorism over the years and would face this fresh attack with "equanimity and fortitude" and would never give in to the "evil designs of the terrorists".

"The Government agencies and civil society are doing their utmost to bring relief and succour to the victims, to restore normalcy and to bring the perpetrators of these horrendous acts to justice," he said.