INDIA SUFFERED one of its deadliest terrorist attacks last night when gunmen ran amok in the wealthiest part of Mumbai, killing dozens of people, blowing up cars, petrol stations, hospitals and luxury hotels and taking a number of foreign nationals hostage.
At least 80 people were believed killed, with 10 shot dead at Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, formerly known as Victoria terminus, one of the two big stations in downtown Mumbai. Another three people were killed in the Taj hotel lobby, where Deutsche Bank executives from Europe were believed to be sheltering.
At one hospital, St George’s in south Mumbai, 60 bodies and 200 injured people were brought in. Government authorities said last night four suspects had been killed in two incidents when they tried to flee in cars. Nine more were arrested.
The chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said he had put the army on red alert in an unprecedented admission that civil forces were unable to control the situation.
Shots were reported in eight areas across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway station, two five-star hotels, the Trident and Taj, leaving hundreds injured. At 12.50am the Taj, one of Mumbai’s landmarks, was shaken by a huge blast and its roof enveloped in red smoke. Two armed men were still believed to be in the Taj, evading security forces and reportedly holding hostages. The lobby of the Trident was destroyed by fire.
It was reported last night that Maharashtra’s chief anti-terror squad officer, Hemant Karkare, had died in a bomb blast in the Trident lobby.
The Maharahstra state police chief, AN Roy, told local television stations that Mumbai was suffering “terrorist strikes in at least seven places”.
At the Taj, several European lawmakers, visiting Mumbai in advance of an EU-India summit, were among those inside the hotel.
Sajjad Karim told the Press Association by phone from the basement that he and several others were barricaded inside the Taj.
“I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running,” he said. “A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen.”
At the luxury Oberoi hotel gunmen burst in and reportedly took American and British nationals hostage. Rajesh Patel, a Briton who works for HSBC, said: “Three men came into the restaurant. They were young, around 20 years old. And they started rounding up foreigners that were eating there. They told everyone to drop their phones and to ‘come with us’ and then at that point the blast happened. So we decided to run outside but around 15 were taken, not just British and Americans but Indians as well.”
A British man with a soot-covered face described how two armed young men, aged between 20 and 25, entered the Trident hotel restaurant and demanded that “only American and British passport-holders remain”.
According to the man 10 people were taken up towards the rooftop but when smoke filled the corridors of the 18th floor, he escaped.
. – (Guardian service)