mumbai blast: 60 killed in multiple Mumbai shootings, blasts

MUMBAI (AFP) — Nearly 60 people were killed in a series of attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai late Wednesday, with five-star hotels among the targets of gunmen armed with powerful assault rifles and grenades.

Maharashtra state police chief A.N. Roy told the NDTV channel that "unknown terrorists" had opened fire in "at least seven to eight places" across the city.

"Fifty-eight bodies have been brought in. There are another 50 who are injured, some critical, who have been transferred to the nearby J.J. Hospital," a spokesman for the city's St George's Hospital told AFP by telephone.

Television reports put the death toll as high as 80, while the Press Trust of India said as many as 200 people had been injured.

Mumbai General Railway Police Commissioner A.K. Sharma said several men armed with AK-47 rifles had stormed into the passenger hall of Mumbai's main Chhatrapati Shivaji railway and opened fire and thrown grenades.

At least 10 people were killed in the attack shortly after 10:30pm (1700 GMT).

The coordinated assaults also targeted two of Mumbai's best-known hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Trident, with gunmen taking hostages and engaging in gunfights with anti-terrorist squads.

Police said two of the gunmen had been shot dead.

Firing was also reported at Cama Hospital in south Mumbai, and three people were reported killed in what police called a "bomb blast" in a taxi in the southeast of the city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks and said the Maharashtra state government would be given all the assistance required.

The Taj hotel, next to the British colonial era Gateway of India monument, is one of the world's leading hotels and regularly attracts VIP visitors.

The head of the Madrid regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, was staying there at the time but she and her delegation escaped unhurt, a government spokesman in Madrid told AFP.

Mumbai had been the start of a four-day official visit to India.

The BBC News website said a British member of the European Parliament, Sajjad Karim, was also in the hotel at the time and saw a gunman open fire in the lobby.

"All I saw was one man on foot carrying a machine gun-type of weapon -- which I then saw him firing from and I saw people hitting the floor, people right next to me," he was quoted as saying.

One British guest told local Indian television that he had been among a dozen people herded together by two heavily armed men and taken up to the hotel's upper floors.

"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," the guest said.

"They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof," he said, adding that he and another hostage had managed to escape when they reached the 18th floor.

As he was speaking, there was a loud explosion from the roof of the hotel.

It was not immediately clear if some hostages were still being held.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband "unreservedly" condemned the attacks, saying they were yet another reminder "of the threat we face from violent extremists."

India has witnessed a wave of coordinated attacks in recent months.

A little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India's northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.

A total of 12 explosions shook the insurgency-hit state, six of them ripping through crowded areas in the main city of Guwahati.

Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead. Those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen.


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