A second Canadian has been confirmed dead in the Mumbai terrorist strikes, federal officials said Friday evening.
No name has yet been released but Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the victim's family had been notified.
"On behalf of all Canadians and the Government of Canada, I offer my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased. The next of kin have been notified, and our consular officers have put themselves at their service," Cannon said in a release Friday.
The announcement came only hours after the identity of another Canadian man killed in the attacks was revealed by a colleague.
Dr. Michael Moss, who was on vacation in India, was killed when gunmen took Mumbai by siege on Wednesday.
Moss was due to return home early next week, said Dr. Ron Ludman, director of professional services at the Richardson Hospital Centre in Montreal.
"It's almost inconceivable to us that on Monday, he won't be here," Ludman told CTV Montreal Friday evening.
Moss was a veteran physician who worked at the hospital for 37 years. Moss was trained in Britain and was a key member of the hospital's rehabilitation program for two decades, said Ludman.
"He was a wonderful physician -- an old time physician -- always advocating for his patients," Ludman added.
Earlier in the day, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had confirmed that one Canadian was killed during the terrorist strikes. Speaking to CTV, Cannon said there were 20 Canadians confirmed in Mumbai at the time of the attacks.
Aside from the two killed, two others are recovering from gunshot wounds and 17 are unharmed.
Cannon said Canadian authorities had no warning of a possible attack on "the level of this nature."
Michael Rudder, a Genie-nominated actor from Montreal, is recovering at a Mumbai hospital after having surgery for three gunshot wounds.
In an email to reporters, Rudder's agent Tania Giampetrone, said the actor was shot in the arm, leg and intestines during the attack at the Oberoi hotel.
"He was awake and speaking earlier today. He spent a good part of the day sleeping and resting," Giampetrone said. "His family is speaking to officials to see how they can get Michael back home."
Rudder appeared alongside Johnny Depp in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
Meanwhile, Helen Connolly, of Markham, Ont., was grazed by a bullet but is doing fine.
The two Canadians were in Mumbai on a spiritual trip with the U.S.-based Synchronicity Foundation, Thomas Sechak, a spokesperson for the organization told CP.
They were having dinner at the hotel when gunmen burst in and began firing and taking hostages.
'It went from normalcy to just insanity in seconds'
Canadian Raynor Burke had just arrived at the Taj hotel to get a room when the horrific scene began to unfold.
"I was actually looking for my bags when I saw the first kid with an AK-47," he told 麻豆影视net Friday.
"It sounded like firecrackers were going off ... I didn't think anything of it until I saw the outline of a gun.
"Basically, it went from normalcy to just insanity in seconds."
When the shooting started, most of the locals in the hotel's lobby put up their hands, perhaps because they thought it was police firing their guns, Burke said.
"They basically opened fire on those people," he said. "They didn't have a chance."
Burke made a dash for the pool area of the hotel, where he found more gunmen. They were indiscriminately killing hotel guests and staff.
"There was a lot of blood there, I actually slipped and slid through it. They were pretty calmly going about shooting people," he said.
Burke believes that the gunmen were either staying at the hotel or were "mingling" there ahead of time, because "they were popping up out of nowhere."
Luckily for Burke, one of the gunmen was refilling his machine gun with ammunition and was unable to fire on him.
"Basically, what got me out of there is he ran out of bullets," he said.
B.C. couple safe
A B.C. woman whose parents were trapped in the Oberoi hotel during the attacks has finally heard from the couple, who told her they survived their ordeal by meditating.
The couple, Larry and Bernie Koftinoff of Kelowna, B.C., was trapped inside the hotel, along with 200 guests.
Watching the violence unfold on television at home in Kelowna, their daughter, Maya Koftinoff spent frantic hours trying to find out if her parents were safe.
"Yes, there was a long period of time. Like I knew that they were at the Oberoi and there were hostages and people had been killed," she told CTV British Columbia.
"I didn't know what to think. I hadn't heard anything from them and I was hearing all this stuff on the news that was just really bad."
But finally, after hours of worry, her parents called to say they were unharmed after barricading themselves in their hotel room.
They also smashed a window to clear the air of smoke as fires began to burn in parts of the hotel.
"They started hearing some explosions and some machine guns and things like that. So they pushed their bureau against the door, and they started doing some meditation," Koftinoff said.
The couple have now left the Oberoi and are now staying at a nearby temple, she said.
'Luckiest man on earth'
Meanwhile, a Vancouver man is describing himself as "the luckiest man on earth" after arriving home to his family after barely escaping the violence and chaos of the attacks.
Jonathan Ehrlich, who was also staying at the Oberoi Hotel, told CTV British Columbia he was supposed to meet two friends in the hotel bar Wednesday night, but instead went to bed early.
At 10:30 p.m., somebody ran his doorbell, but he didn't answer. Minutes later he heard an explosion, and that's when he ran downstairs.
"There was glass everywhere and blood and stuff, and I took a couple of steps and realized that was not the way to go," he said.
He then ran back to the hotel, but added, he knew he had to get out of the city quickly.
"I looked to my left and right and then in the distance I saw a bunch of security guards, and they started yelling for me to run. I started running. I ran to the road, and then I just started screaming airport! Airport!" he said.
He said someone from the hotel then grabbed him and threw him into a cab.
"I caught the last seat on my flight and took off," he said.
He said the two friends he was supposed to have drinks with on Wednesday night were in the Oberoi hotel's bar when the siege began.
One escaped the hotel and the other was believed to have been holed up at the hotel.
Ehrlich said he was glad to be home with his wife and kids. But he also noted that he hoped people would not think twice about visiting India. He said he loves the people and wants Canadians to visit and spend money in India. He said he just doesn't want the terrorists to win.
Canadians concerned about relatives in the Mumbai-area can call:
- Foreign Affairs hotline - in Canada: 1-613-996-8885 (collect calls are accepted)
- Foreign Affairs hotline - outside Canada: 1-800-387-3124
