Keith Bradsher, a Times correspondent, sent The Lede updates from his BlackBerry as he watched a commando operation taking place at the Nariman House, home to the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch, and around Mumbai. The time stamps are London time (GMT). Mumbai is five and a half hours ahead of his timestamps. The most recent posts are at the top of this post.

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:58:48
I am on top of an apartment building facing Chabad house over two rooftops. A half dozen police marksmen in blue uniforms and helmets with their face shields down are watching the lower floors carefully, a couple of them with rifles at their shoulders. A small helicopter in military colors is flying tight circles overhead, apparently for observation, as it has no visible guns. There was scattered shooting audible to the crowd a few minutes ago but now Chabad house is silent.

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:32:15
At least five commandos are on the rooftop balcony of Nariman House, trying to look over the row of small red flowerpots at the side of the building. The police marksmen atop an aging, yellow building across the street are also trying to look down. The walls of the Nariman House were once white but are now stained light gray by years of smog.

I was extremely lucky. I was with a very good bunch of people. Three or four of us were Brits. There were some Irish as well. Most were Indian.

'We’d never met each other but I have to say, it was a true British stiff upper-lip situation. Together, the Brits helped to keep up morale.

‘There was a can-do attitude. We thought, 'Let’s get the barricades done, let’s do the practical things rather than sit there like sheep and wait to meet our fate.'

‘There was a lot of crying from many of the other people and I suppose comforting them was a way of keeping ourselves occupied. My boss Christopher Garnett and some old friends were sending me messages to keep my spirits up.

‘At one stage Christopher sent me some stanzas from The Private Of The Buffs [a ballad by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle describing the execution of a captured British infantryman for refusing to kowtow to the Chinese in 1860].’

Nick added: ‘We all decided that even though we had alcohol within reach we wouldn’t touch it because it seemed like a bad idea to get drunk.

‘But come 5am, we were fairly confident the police were going to get us out, so I marched over to the bar and found a bottle of vintage Cristal champagne and opened it and began pouring it into glasses.

‘Then the head waiter came rushing across to me and said, “No, no, you can’t do that!” and I said, 'Well we’re going to' and he said, 'No sir, those are the wrong type of glasses. I shall find you champagne flutes.'

'And he did. The service was immaculate.