Dubai: He was minutes away from safety but his mobile gave him away.

Martis from the service section of Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel was running from the enclosed air-conditioned chopping area towards the deep freezer when his mobile rang.

A gunman standing outside wiped the condensation on the glass to get a clearer view and aimed his gun at Martis who fell down in a rain of bullets.

His colleagues, who were already hiding in the freezer room, heard the gunshots and went numb with fear.

"What followed next was deafening silence before we heard more gunshots in the distance," said Alwyn, a hotel employee, over phone from Mumbai.

"Martis has been a long-serving staff of the Taj and we all respected him. He had put in 27 years of service. He is from Mangalore but stayed in Thane [a Mumbai suburb]. His burial is scheduled to take place today," he added.

According to him he and a few other staff members spent more than five hours in the deep freezer among the frozen meat at the Taj Mahal Hotel on the Wednesday night when terrorists went on rampage.

"We never realised in their wildest dreams that one day this place will serve as our hideout from terrorists. Usually we feel bone-chilling cold in the freezer but in those hours we did not feel a thing, all that we could think was how to get out of the hotel to safety," said Alwyn.

He said that the freezer is strategically located on the first floor between the old Taj building and the new Taj tower. An enclosed air-conditioned chopping section leads to the freezer where meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables are stored.

Remembering Martis and feeling fortunate to be alive is John Alex Fernandes, a chef of 27 years at the hotel's rooftop Middle Eastern restaurant.

He told Gulf News: "I was working at the rooftop restaurant when we heard commotion below. We were on the 25th floor. It's a glass restaurant and faces a banquet hall which is located on the same floor. When we heard gunfire we all started calling to our colleagues and downstairs in the lobby. We had among us a few and Champions League players and their body guards dining at the restaurant. They too started making calls to find out what was going on."

An hour later one of the chefs received a message on his mobile phone from the lobby to move to the Banquet hall and secure the doors. "The time was 2:45am on Thursday. We remained there until we were rescued by our hotel staff from the back door at 3:45am," said Fernandes.