Peppered with tall residential complexes and luxurious bungalows, Perry Cross Road in Bandra (West) was known to be a quiet, safe neighbourhood until Monday, when a robber climbed into a third-floor apartment in one of the buildings and raped a Spanish national. “I have lived here for 60 years. This has always been a safe neighbourhood. I can’t come to terms with the fact that something so despicable has happened here,” said Salma Maklai, a homemaker. “The police should increase patrols in our area.”

“When advocate Pallavi Purkhayastha was killed in her flat, I was shaken and got locks fixed on each room door and on our main door. But I told myself that perhaps Wadala is secluded and that something like that could not happen in posh, crowded, upmarket Bandra. I was wrong,” said Payal Bagzai, a 25-year-old fashion designer who shares a flat with two women at Perry Cross Road.

Residents of the building where the victim lived are upset. “This feels like terrorism. When you don’t feel safe in the your own house, you are terrorised,” said a resident.

The society has told its guard and liftman to be more vigilant.

“The watchman will now maintain a visitor’s register apart from calling residents on intercom before letting people in. The liftman has been asked not to leave before the resident acknowledges the visitor. We are consulting with the police and our security agency about what more to do.”

Sharad Kotiyan, 22, whose office is in the building, said: “I’ve been coming here for two years. It’s a quiet, posh residential area. You would not expect something like this to happen here.”

Perry Cross Road is a stone’s throw away from the office of the additional commissioner of police, west region.