Gunmen stalk Westerners as Mumbai attacks kill 80
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was set alight trapping dozens inside. Photo: Pal Pillai, Getty Images
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Gunmen stalked a hotel in Mumbai looking for British and US passport holders during co-ordinated attacks across the city that have left at least 80 dead and 250 injured.
A series of shootings and bomb blasts at luxury hotels and bars in the south of the city hit at least nine locations. Security sources said "a major terror attack" was unfolding amid reports that foreigners had been taken hostage in one hotel.
Shootings were reported in the lobby of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the Colaba area of south Mumbai and at the nearby Leopolds bar, a popular destination with western backpackers.
Witnesses described pools of blood and bullet-scarred walls at both locations.
A witness at the hotel told a local television station: "They wanted anyone with British or American passports."
It was feared that the death toll could rise significantly.
Nearby, witnesses described a "high intensity" bomb blast at the Oberoi hotel, also in the south of the city, a regular meeting place for businessmen and wealthy tourists. Paramilitary forces were readying to storm the tower-block building, one of Mumbai's best-known landmarks as smoke continued to pour from the hotel lobby amid fears that hostages were being held by gunmen inside.
Huge blast
City residents several miles away said they had heard a huge blast. Elsewhere in the city, a taxi was blown apart, apparently by another large bomb.
Sajjad Karim, an MEP for the North West of England who is in Mumbai said he had seen a gunman opening fire in the lobby of Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
Speaking via mobile phone, he said: "I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running. A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away and I ran. We are now in the dark in this room and we've barricaded all the doors. It's really bad." There were also reports that two gunmen had been cornered by police at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the main railway station of Mumbai, India's commercial capital. Intermittent firing from automatic weapons was heard at the scene.
A senior police officer said about 100 people were known to be injured across the city, but that the figure was likely to rise.
He said that police were battling gunmen in several locations. He said: "terrorists have used automatic weapons and we have reports that in some places hand grenades have been used". No group claimed immediate responsibility.
In recent months, Mumbai has been on high alert for an attack in the wake of bombings across several major Indian cities. (©The Times, London)
- Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
