A Sydney woman shot in the Indian terrorist attacks has returned home from Mumbai, accompanied by her mother and a special medical team.
Katie Anstee, 24, was shot in Mumbai’s Cafe Leopold on her first day in the Indian city on November 27.
She returned to Sydney Airport on a Qantas flight, touching down at 6.05pm (AEDT) on Monday and has been taken by ambulance to North Shore Private Hospital.
A bullet broke Anstee’s femur bone and exited through the front of her thigh.
Her boyfriend David Coker, 23, has flesh wounds from bullets that grazed his legs in the terrorist attack which left at least 172 people dead including two Australians.
Candy Anstee flew to Mumbai to be with her daughter and accompanied the young couple on the return flight, which left Mumbai on Sunday night.
Anstee was cared for by a special medical team during the flight and will require further hospital treatment.
Her stretcher was loaded onto a lift taken to the plane doors a short time after the plane arrived, while an ambulance waited on the tarmac.
She was then put into the ambulance and taken from the airport.
Anstee and Coker had been in India for only a matter of hours when they were caught up in the deadly attacks.
They were at the start of an 11-week holiday to celebrate their graduation from the Australian National University in Canberra.
Shortly after Anstee was taken from the plane, other Australian survivors of the Mumbai attacks starting coming through the airport’s arrival hall.
Greeted by emotional family and friends, most were reluctant to speak to the waiting media.
However, Sydney lawyer David Jacobs, who was trapped in the Oberoi Hotel during the ordeal, made a plea for people to live in peace.
“We need the world to have a greater understanding of the concerns that we each have,” he told reporters.
“We’ve got to stop killing each other.”
One woman, who tearfully hugged her family, said she would overcome her horrific experience.
“Love is stronger than terrorism,” said the woman who did not want to be named.
