My movie experience helped me survive: Actor David Rudder

Toronto, Dec 01: Hollywood actor David Rudder said his experience in movies helped him survive the terrorist attack in Mumbai.In a TV interview Sunday from a Mumbai hospital, the actor recalled how his reel-life experience helped him survive the real-life drama.

``My arm ... just exploded into red. It was like a scarecrow arm inside of a second... While I was taking that in, I got a bullet in my leg,`` he said. The actor said he dove to the floor of the Oberoi hotel restaurant as a third bullet hit him in the lower back and a fourth one grazed his head. ``I just laid there in utter shock for quite a long time,`` he said. ``My intention, once the bullets started flying, was to pretend - as I`ve learned in so many Second World War movies - that I was dead and just to stay as still as could,`` he said. When the gunman left the area, he said, he crawled out of the kitchen and fled the building to be taken to hospital in a taxi. The actor, who is from Montreal, said he will undergo surgery Tuesday to remove a bullet in his stomach. Rudder said his two friends who were dining with him were killed in the attacks. Recalling how it all began, Rudder said when he and his friends first heard gunfire, he got up to see what was going on. But he was told by the staff that it could be some small gang warfare and he should go back to his table. ``That was my fatal error. I did go back to my table and I said: `Apparently, it`s some kind of gangster activity and it`s no big deal`, `` he said. ``Five minutes later we were ... just ripped to shreds by bullets,`` the actor recalled. He said he never saw his attackers. The actor said he was in India on a spiritual pilgrimage with a Virginia-based meditation group called Synchronicity Foundation which lost a member and his daughter. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Russell from Montreal was identified as the second Canadian killed in the terrorist attack. She was the partner of Michael Ross who was earlier identified as the first Canadian victim of the terror attack. Reports said 73-year-old Moss and 65-year-old Russell, who had been staying together for the past 20 years, were holidaying in India. They were to return home Monday. Confirming her mother`s death, Anne Russell said in Montreal that her mother and Moss were killed when the terrorists attacked the luxury hotel where they were staying. Canadian authorities had earlier reported that 20 of its nationals were caught in the terrorist attacks. Another Canadian, Helen Connolly of Ah Yogahh in Markham on the outskirts of Toronto, was also among the injured Canadians. She has been discharged from hospital and is expected back home soon. IANS