Madrid - Esperanza Aguirre, one of the leaders of Spain's main conservative opposition People's Party (PP), arrived Thursday in Madrid after surviving the terrorist violence in Mumbai.

Madrid regional Prime Minister Aguirre was visiting India with a delegation of Spanish businessmen and politicians, when shooting and explosions broke out near their hotel, press reports quoted members of the delegation as saying.

Aguirre and others hid behind a desk and threw themselves to the ground while bullets were flying by in the hotel lobby.

They found a way out of the hotel, but roads to the airport were closed, according to the daily El Pais. The Spanish government then sent a plane to pick them up.

Aguirre, who has been tipped as successor to PP leader Mariano Rajoy, survived a helicopter crash unharmed in 2005.

The government meanwhile established a crisis team to prepare the evacuation of an estimated 30 Spaniards from the Mumbai region.

Two Spaniards were reported injured in the attacks that killed more than 100 people overnight. (dpa)