A rabbi’s two-year-old son was saved from the clutches of the militants who seized a Jewish centre in Bombay on Wednesday and were still holding up to ten Israelis hostage last night.

Moishe Holtzberg was spirited out of the building by Sandra Samuel, a maid who was alerted to his presence by the sound of his cries. She grabbed the boy and ran from the gunmen. As she fled the building, she said, she saw four people lying unconscious on the floor. Security cameras showed the boy looking dazed, his trousers covered in blood.

Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were being held by the militants at the house, which is run by the Jewish outreach group Chabad.

Their family gathered yesterday for a prayer vigil in the northern Israeli town of Afula. Chaya Rosenberg, Mrs Holtzberg’s sister, said: “They were well liked by the community. We are glad that their son has escaped, but we are eager to hear about Rivka and Gavriel. We are feeling a lot of stress, a lot of pressure.

“But we are praying all the time. They are good, devout people, so we are sure that this will end well.” She added that her parents were going to Bombay to look after their grandson.

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