Scores dead as gunmen storm Indian city

Gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded station in co-ordinated attacks across India’s financial capital today, killing at least 78 people and taking Westerners hostage.

The attackers specifically targeted Britons and Americans, witnesses said. Fires burned and gunfire was heard for hours. Officials said at least 200 people were wounded.

A previously unknown group, apparently Muslim militants, reportedly said it carried out the attacks in Mumbai.

A raging fire and explosions struck one of the hotels, the landmark Taj Mahal. Screams could be heard and enormous clouds of black smoke rose from the at the century-old edifice on Mumbai’s waterfront.

Tonight, government authorities said four suspects had been killed in two incidents when they tried to flee in cars. Nine more were arrested.

The motive for the onslaught was not immediately clear, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, including a series of bombings in July 2007 that killed 187 people.

An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attacks in emails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify that claim.

Police reported hostages being held at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, two of the best-known upscale destinations in the crowded, but wealthy city.

Gunmen who burst into the Taj “were targeting foreigners. They kept shouting, ’Who has US or UK passports?’,” said Ashok Patel, a British citizen who fled from the hotel.

Authorities believed seven to 15 foreigners were prisoners at the Taj Mahal hotel, but it was not immediately clear if hostages at the Oberoi were Indians or foreigners, said Anees Ahmed, a top state official.

It was also unclear where the hostages were in the Taj Mahal, which is divided into an older wing, which was in flames, and a modern tower that was not on fire.

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said officials were not aware of any American casualties, but were still checking. He said he could not address reports that Westerners might be among the hostages.

“We condemn these attacks and the loss of innocent life,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Johnny Joseph, chief secretary for Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, said 78 people had been killed and 200 had been wounded.

Officials at Bombay Hospital said a Japanese man had died there and nine Europeans had been admitted, three of them in a critical condition with gunshot wounds. All had come from the Taj Mahal, the officials said.

At least three top Indian police officers – including the chief of the anti-terror squad – were among those killed, said police official AN Roy.

Blood smeared the floor of the Chhatrapati Shivaji station, where attackers sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal.

Other gunmen attacked Leopold’s restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners, and the police headquarters in southern Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks took place.

The restaurant was riddled with bullet holes and there were blood on the floor and shoes left by fleeing customers. Gunmen also attacked Cama and Albless Hospital and GT Hospital, though it was not immediately clear if anyone was killed.

Briton Alex Chamberlain, who was dining at the Oberoi hotel told Sky News television that the gunmen who struck there singled out Britons and Americans.

He said a gunman, a young man of 22 or 23, ushered 30 or 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and ordered everyone to put up their hands.

“They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said, ’Where are you from?’ and he said he’s from Italy and they said, ’Fine’, and they left him alone. And I thought, ’Fine, they’re going to shoot me if they ask me anything – and thank God they didn’t.”

Mr Chamberlain said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk upstairs, but he thought much of the group was being held hostage.

Early Thursday, several European politicians were among people who barricaded themselves inside the Taj, a century-old seaside hotel complex and one of the city’s best-known destinations.

The Foreign Office said it was advising all British citizens in Mumbai to stay indoors.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: “Today’s attacks in Mumbai which have claimed many innocent victims remind us, yet again, of the threat we face from violent extremists.”

India has been wracked by bomb attacks the past three years, which police blame on Muslim militants intent on destabilising the largely Hindu country. Nearly 700 people have died.

Since May a militant group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen has taken credit for a string of blasts that killed more than 130 people.

The most recent was in September, when a series of explosions struck a park and crowded shopping areas in the capital, New Delhi, killing 21 people and wounding about 100.