Sajjad Karim, who served two terms as a Liberal Democrat councillor for Brierfield between 1994 and 2001 before being elected as an MEP in 2004 and defecting to the Conservatives last year, was among a delegation to the city when the Taj Mahal Palace hotel came under attack from suspected Islamic fundamentalists.

More than 100 people were killed, nearly 300 injured and dozens taken hostage in the attacks on luxury hotels, a railway station and a cinema in the city (formerly Bombay).

Mr Karim (38), a former Mansfield High School, Brierfield and Nelson and Colne College student who lives in Simonstone and runs a Manchester-based firm of solicitors, contacted friends at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night to say he was OK, but his exact whereabouts are unknown at the moment.

A hostage situation at the hotel was reported to have ended, but guests were said to be trapped in their rooms.

As he escaped the carnage in the machine gun fire, Mr Karim, the first British Muslim MEP, contacted Sky News and said: "I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running. There were about 25 or 30 of us. A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me.

"I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen and then we were shunted into a restaurant in the basement.

"We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It's really bad.

"There was a lot of commotion in the main lobby, and then another gunman came right in front of us and started shooting. I saw a number of people go down, but I was fortunate enough to get away."

Mr Karim serves on the International Trade and Human Rights Committees and was a member of the European Parliament's Committee of Investigation into alleged CIA extraordinary renditions and secret prisons after having been the first MEP to officially raise the matter.

He is co-chairman of the European Muslim Forum and chairman of the European Parliament Friends of Pakistan Group.