[CNN] Paula Hancocks - The world knows her as the daring nanny who, clutching a 2-year-old boy, pushed past the havoc in a terrorized Mumbai and risked her life to keep the toddler safe. But Sandra Samuel sees no heroism in her actions amid last week's terror attacks that killed 180 people - including baby Moshe's parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. She only wishes she could have done more. Samuel says she came face to face with a gunman late Wednesday, the first night of the siege. "I saw one man was shooting at me." She slammed a door and hid in a first-floor storage room and attempted to reach the rabbi and the others on the second floor. Samuel says she emerged the next afternoon when she heard Moshe calling for her. She found the child crying as he stood between his parents, who she says appeared unconscious but still alive. "This baby is something very precious to me and that's what made me just not think anything - just pick up the baby and run," Samuel said. "I'm a mother of two children so I just pick up the baby and run. Does anyone think of dying at the moment when there's a small, precious baby?" Ultimately, she and Moshe reached safety at the home of an Israeli consul before arriving in Israel, where she is considered a hero. Samuel, a non-Jew and native of India, said she will stay in Israel for as long as Moshe needs her.
2008-12-05 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive