A Dubliner has described how he lost one of his closest friends in the Mumbai terror massacre.

Businessman Nisheeth Tak, once worked in the Taj Mahal hotel and had many friends there.

Mr Tak, co-owner of the trendy Rasam Indian restaurant in Glasthule, believes the attack was masterminded by terrorists who had booked into the iconic hotel up to a week ago.

Tak’s friend, executive chef Vijnay Banja (41), was shot dead as he tried to flee to safety with chefs from the hotel kitchens. He leaves a wife and 17-year-old son.

“I worked in the Taj with him for five years. I was restaurant manger and he was chef of the kitchen,” Mr Tak said today.

The two shared hotel accommodation near the Jewish outreach building targeted by the terrorists, a few minutes walk from the Taj.

“I tried to ring his mobile and then tried his wife's but could not get them,” Mr Tak said.

“I'm absolutely shocked by what happened. I can't believe it. I know the hotel inside and out. I spent five years there before I came to Dublin.”

“I last ate in the restaurant with my business partner last January.”

He managed to speak to some of the staff and learned how the terrorist attack took place.

“They (the attackers) came from the old building. It seems one or two guys had already booked a room in the Taj up to a week ago to set up a control centre.”

“The real killers came later, in a rubber dinghy let off by a mother ship off the coast. The terrorists were moving around the hotel as if they owned it or knew it really well,” he said.

“They went to the swimming pool, which is in the old building, and started shooting people.

“ People ran towards the elevators, which are very wide staircase and they wanted British and Americans to go up to the sixth floor.”

“From the outside, the Taj looks like two separate buildings but they are connected by a long corridor. They started shooting in the

Shamiana restaurant, where I was last January,” Mr Tak said.

“They went from there to the kitchen. Most of the staff, 70-80, managed to get away and Banja was on his way to a room where most of the chefs were when he was shot.”

Mr Tak said he listened to one of the terrorists speaking on a Hindi channel and he claimed to be Hyderabad, a city in the north which is landlocked.

“I know the accent and he did not come from Hyderabad,” he said.

Another friend, a head waiter, was also a victim of the outrage. “I didn’t go to work yesterday. I just sat and watched the television all day,” Mr Tak said.

“Everybody in India is shocked. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he added.

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Tower, better known as the Taj, where the gunmen killed dozens of guests and staff, is Mumbai's premier hotel.

The brainchild of wealthy industrialist Jamsetji Tata (1839-1904), it was built at a cost of £250,000 and boasted such features as the first air conditioned ballroom in the country and a Turkish bath.