According to the New York Times and Washington Post, teams of gunmen stormed a popular restaurant, hospitals, luxury hotels and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital Wednesday night, killing more than 100 people and taking Westerners hostage, police said. Responsibility was claimed by a group of Muslim militants. The attackers targeted Americans and Britons, witnesses said.
Ashok Patel, a British citizen who had fled the hotel , said that as the gunmen stormed into the Taj Mahal hotel, they began “targeting foreigners. They kept shouting: ‘Who has U.S. or U.K. passports?’
A senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry, Pradeep Indulkar, said 101 people were killed and 287 injured. At least six militants had been killed since the overnight attacks began about 9:30 p.m., officials said.
A.N. Roy, a top police official said that early today, police and gunmen were still exchanging gunfire at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, and an unknown number of people were held hostage at the two luxury hotels.
With loudspeakers blaring, the police declared a curfew around the Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building as fresh gunshots rang out from the area, apparently the beginning of an assault on the gunmen holding hostages in the hotel.
The Taj was rocked by a series of explosions shortly after midnight. There were screams heard, and smoke billowed from the one hundred-year-old building on Mumbai’s waterfront. While some fire-fighters sprayed water on the blaze, others plucked people from windows and balconies with ladders.
At around 2 a.m., Indian military forces arrived outside the Oberoi, and about 100 officers from an elite police unit, entered later. Just after the police force went in, CNN-IBN reported the sounds of gunfire from the hotel.
It was estimated by authorities that seven to 15 foreigners were being held as hostages at the Taj Mahal hotel, but it was unclear if the hostages being held at the Oberoi were Indians or foreigners, said Anees Ahmed, a top state official. The Taj is divided into an older wing, which was in flames, and a modern tower that wasn’t on fire but it was also unclear where the hostages were.
The Mumbai headquarters of the Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was also seized by gunmen, according to some media reports.
U.S. officials weren’t aware of any American casualties but were still checking, said State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood. However, he would not address reports that Westerners might be among the hostages.
The floor of the Chhatrapati Shivaji rail station, where attackers had sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal, was smeared in blood and littered with bodies.
There were eyewitness accounts such as that of Nasim Inam, whose hands shook when he spoke of seeing commuters gunned down as they walked to catch trains home.
“Four boys rushed in. They wore black T-shirts and blue jeans. They were carrying big guns. They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground,” said Inam.
Leopold’s restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners, and the police headquarters in southern Mumbai were also attacked by other gunmen.
Roy said that at least three top Indian police officers — including the chief of the anti-terror squad — were among those killed, Roy.
According to officials, the city’s Cama and Albless Hospital and G.T. Hospital were also attaked by gunmen. Eyewitnesses reported that gunmen hijacked a police van and then opened fire on crowds that had collected near the hospitals, which are close to the police headquarters.
“We felt the ground shake and heard the explosions. We heard a car speed up behind us, it was a police van, but the men inside were firing at us,” said Manish Tripathi, at a police barricade near one of the hospitals
Tripathi added that people around him were shot. “Men were screaming that they had lost their fingers. There was blood all over. Some were shot in the leg, some on the shoulder or hand. I feel they are still screaming.” He was fortunate enough to escape unscathed.
The gunmen there singled out Americans and Britons, this according to what a British citizen who had been dining at the Oberoi hotel told Sky News television.
Another eyewitness, Alex Chamberlain, detailed that a gunman conducted 30 or 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and ordered everyone to put up their hands.
Alex Chamberlain further related, “They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy. … 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.”
He thought much of the group was held hostage but said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk up stairs.
Several European lawmakers had barricaded themselves inside the Taj Mahal hotel earlier today.
Sajjad Karim, part of a delegation of European lawmakers visiting Mumbai ahead of a European Union-India summit said, “I was in the main lobby, and there was all of a sudden a lot of firing outside…then another gunman appeared in front of us, carrying machine gun-type weapons. And he just started firing at us. … I just turned and ran in the opposite direction.”
Karim remained holed up in a hotel restaurant hours later. He said, “We are now in the dark in this room, and we have barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad.”
Bipin Shrimali, Maharashtra state home secretary, said four suspects had been killed in two incidents when they tried to flee in cars, and Roy said two more gunmen were killed at the Taj Mahal hotel. Nine suspects had been captured according to State Home Minister R.R. Patil, but relevant officials declined to provide details.
Patil added to reporters, “We’re going to catch them dead or alive.”
There was an Indian media report which said that a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets, although this claim has not been verified.
The name of the alleged group apparently refers to the Deccan Plateau, an area that covers much of central and southern India and “Mujahideen” suggests the attackers are Muslim extremists.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the National Security Council convened officials from U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence agencies as well as the State and Defense departments to monitor the situation in Washington, “including the safety and security of our citizens, and stands ready to assist and support the Indian government.”
TicosLand.com and people all over Costa Rica denounce these unspeakable terrorist acts. There is nothing that justifies taking the lives of so many innocent people. We ask the international community to rise up and denounce the horrors committed by these so-called Islamists. Costa Rica is a neutral nation, but even neutral nations must cry out against these horrors.
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