Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing 101 people and injuring 287 more.

 

At least seven high-profile locations were hit in India's financial capital, including two luxury hotels where dozens of hostages are being held.

 

The buildings are now ringed by troops. Gunmen are also said to be holding people captive in an office block.

 

Police say four suspected terrorists have been killed and nine arrested.

 

As day broke in Mumbai, the situation on the ground was still confused with reports of gunfire and explosions at between seven and 16 locations.

 

The city's main commuter train station, a hospital, a restaurant and two hotels - locations used by foreigners as well as local businessmen and leaders - were among those places caught up in the violence.

 

Commandos have surrounded the two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident, where it is believed that the armed men are holding dozens of hostages.

 

In other developments:

 

• Fire crews evacuate people from the upper floors of the Taj Mahal Palace, where police say a grenade attack caused a blaze

 

• The head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism unit and two other senior officers are among those killed, officials say

 

• The White House holds a meeting of top intelligence and counter-terrorism officials, and pledges to help the Indian government

 

• Trading on India's Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange markets will remain closed on Thursday, officials say.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7751160.stm

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwGetUgr2g]YouTube - Tourists From US, UK in India Get Out of Dodge[/ame]

India terror attacks: British shipping tycoon killed in Mumbai massacre

 

A British shipping tycoon has been shot dead in the Mumbai massacre which has so far claimed 125 lives

 

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

Last Updated: 8:55PM GMT 27 Nov 2008

 

Andreas Liveras suffered multiple gunshot wounds

 

Andreas Liveras, 73, was gunned down moments after he phoned the BBC from inside the Taj Mahal hotel to give an eyewitness account of the terrorist attacks.

 

He was one of dozens of Britons either injured or taken hostage by Islamic extremists during a series of co-ordinated raids on Western targets.

 

Eyewitnesses said the terrorists, who indiscriminately gunned down anyone in their path and set fire to the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi hotels, specifically targeted British and American tourists when they began taking hostages.

 

The killers demanded a list of the names and room numbers of all British and American guests at the Oberoi hotel, before rounding up hotel guests to begin a siege which has entered its second night with the fate of the hostages still unclear.

 

Indian officials said they were unsure how many hostages remained in the hotels following 24 hours of gun battles with soldiers, nor was it clear how many people remain trapped in their rooms by the fires.

 

Mr Liveras was pronounced dead on arrival at St George's Hospital in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, staff said.

 

Before he was hit, Mr Liveras, who built a £315 million fortune from his eponymous luxury yacht charter business, told the BBC he had just sat down for dinner at the Taj Mahal when the shooting began.

 

"We heard the machine gunfire outside in the corridor," he said. "We hid ourselves under the table and then they switched all the lights off. But the machine guns kept going, and they took us into the kitchen, and from there into a basement, before we came up into a salon.

 

"There must be more than a thousand people here. Nobody comes in this room and nobody goes out, and we really don't know. Everybody is just living on their nerves."

 

The Indian authorities blamed Kashmiri militants for the bloodbath, which left 125 dead and at least 327 injured after simultaneous attacks on at least seven targets in Mumbai. Officials said the death toll was likely to rise once burnt-out rooms in the hotels could be checked for bodies.

 

Two retired teachers from Hexham in Northumberland were among those shot in the first of the attacks, in the Café Leopold, at 9.30pm local time (4pm GMT) on Wednesday, where at least 14 people died.

 

Michael Murphy, 59, was shot in the ribs and is in intensive care after having his spleen removed. His wife Diane, 58, who was shot in the foot, said: "It was mayhem. There were so many casualties. It was carnage. There were obviously people injured and others who were dead."

 

Mrs Murphy said there were at least 100 people in the café when the shooting began.

 

"All of a sudden there was automatic gunfire," she said. "The whole place fell apart. It was tremendously loud. My husband and I were hit, as were lots of people. Everybody was down on the ground. The gunfire stopped for a few seconds then started again.

 

"I stayed with my husband because I could tell he was seriously injured. He was losing consciousness."

 

Mrs Murphy, who was due to return with her husband from their holiday on December 9, added: "When the police arrived with guns I could see them making their way into what was left of the café. I couldn't tell if they were police. I didn't know if it was still the people who had been shooting at us.

 

They were very cautious because they didn't know if any terrorists were still in there."

 

Alan Jones, from South Wales, was staying at the Oberoi Hotel on business when it was attacked. He said: "We took the lift to the lobby and heard bangs as the door opened. Two Japanese men riding with us got out, but immediately signalled for us to go back in the lift.

 

As they got back in, a bullet hit one of the Japanese men in the back of the leg. Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

 

"I looked up to see one of the gunmen was approaching. I tried to close the door, but the injured guy's leg was preventing it from closing.

 

"I frantically pressed the 'close door' button, but had to move the shot man's foot for the door to close."

 

Mr Jones escaped after being guided by staff to a basement via another lift.

Hugh Brown, who was staying at the Taj Mahal, took refuge in a library area with a large group of people, one of whom later turned out to be a terrorist.

He told Sky News: "We were let out at one point at about 2.30am. There was a gunman who had been in among us in the room for the best part of the evening. He pretended to be one of us in the room.

 

"When he got out with us, he started shooting some of the people as they were leaving the room. He was then dealt with by the security forces."

 

Mumbai's central railway station, a hospital, police station, cinema and a Jewish centre were among other targets hit by the terrorists, who sailed by boat to the Mumbai peninsula before fanning out in several dinghies and landing on the shore close to their predetermined targets.

 

One of the terrorists was quoted on Indian TV saying the purpose of the hostage-taking was to secure the release of all "mujahideen" held in Indian prisons.

:( so sad that.

 

a spanish politician was there yesterday too.. :(

:( so sad that.

 

a spanish politician was there yesterday too.. :(

 

Yeah fuck all those "normal" people who died

I can't believe a thread about santa getting fired for asking an old lady to sit on his lap has 17 replies, and this only has 4. :disappointed:

 

Every thing that's going on in Mumbai right now is absolutely awful. My heart goes out to all of those people. :(

I can't believe a thread about santa getting fired for asking an old lady to sit on his lap has 17 replies, and this only has 4. :disappointed:

 

Every thing that's going on in Mumbai right now is absolutely awful. My heart goes out to all of those people. :(

 

well Santa the pervert is a little more light-hearted than this. People don't want to discuss this, they'd rather pretend it's not happening. Can't say I blame them, it's horrible stuff to hear about.

Yeah fuck all those "normal" people who died

i didn't meant that. :dozey:

 

Is so sad what had happened and is happing there now. :( :cry:

I've heard on the news that there are still attacks happening there.

^Yeah, there's still at least one terrorist alive.

Why can't we live in peace?!?!?!

 

WHY......?????

 

:(

I think it's just that we hear about attacks all the time now... so... there's 2 people from my country dead, a possible 4, and it's rather scary because these attacks have happened in places like Bali, India where Australians often go on a peaceful holiday, only to have this happen...

I can't believe a thread about santa getting fired for asking an old lady to sit on his lap has 17 replies, and this only has 4. :disappointed:

 

Every thing that's going on in Mumbai right now is absolutely awful. My heart goes out to all of those people. :(

 

Threads about Santa don't ask you to look the worst kind of evil known to man right in the eye. :disappointed: Some things there just aren't words for.

Troops search Mumbai siege hotel

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7756465.stm

 

Troops have been searching through Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel, hours after an assault ended a bloody three-day siege there.

 

Commandos went room-to-room to check for casualties, while small blasts were heard from controlled explosions.

 

A military commander said three militants were killed in the final gun battle, which ended early on Saturday. Militants attacked the hotel and other targets on Wednesday night, in violence that left at least 195 people dead.

 

Witnesses spoke of a scene of destruction at the Taj Mahal hotel, parts of which had been ablaze during the siege. Vehicles waited to take bodies away, as forensic experts and sniffer dogs entered the building. Commando chief JK Dutt appealed to any guests still hiding to make their presence known.

 

On Friday, almost 100 people were rescued from a second hotel, the Oberoi, and six bodies were found at a Jewish centre. Police say they have arrested one suspected attacker. The number of militants involved in the co-ordinated attacks remains unclear.

 

In other developments:

 

• The funeral has been held of Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who died in the attacks

 

• A navy spokesman says officials are investigating whether an abandoned trawler with a corpse on board is linked to the attacks

 

• Maharashtra State Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh says there is no evidence British citizens were involved in the attacks, despite earlier reports

 

India's foreign minister has blamed "elements with links to Pakistan" for the attacks. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has pledged to act swiftly if given any evidence of involvement by Pakistani groups or individuals in the attacks.

 

Earlier, Pakistan reversed a decision to send its intelligence chief to India to help with the investigation, following domestic criticism. It will instead send a lower-ranking representative.

this is just sad... this world is too sick .. terrorists organizations with so much money and power and what is worst.. with lots of people supporting them...

 

I don't care about wars.. wars are awful but even there, there are principles about not attacking civilian targets (ok most of the times are not respected but still)... this is just to cause trouble and harm it's against people who was not even fighting... just random people who was there for one or another reason :sick:

 

there are better ways to try to change things than this :sick:

Why can't we live in peace?!?!?!

 

WHY......?????

 

:(

 

*facepalm*

I hope they torture any terrorists that are still alive, yes I know people will say that makes us as bad as them but I don't care, I'm usually pretty peaceful but anyone who's sick enough to do things like that deserve a painful death.

:(

 

It's fucking terrible what happened in Bombay... I've read stories of the survivivors in the newspaper. Blood and body parts everywhere.

tommorow (1st december) we are gonna where white in memory of all those who died in the attacks. its not an offical thing, but it would be good if we can do atleast this..i belive not only does it show that we are remebering all who died, but it shows we are united and showing those terrorist that we are united but in a peacefull way

 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=64855966216&ref=mf

India terror begins with corpses on train platform

 

By TIM SULLIVAN and RAVI NESSMAN – 3 hours ago

 

a gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India

 

MUMBAI, India (AP) — 9:21 p.m. Wednesday, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus __

Two young men walk casually through Mumbai's main railway station, a worn Victorian hulk bustling with late commuters heading home, scurrying past small food stands and juice bars and vendors selling newspapers. They enter near the taxi stand, where long lines of battered black and yellow cabs wait for fares. One wears khaki cargo pants and a blue T-shirt. A pair of small knapsacks are slung over a shoulder. He looks like a college kid.

 

They are, says a photographer who follows them on part of their grim journey, "backpackers with assault rifles."

 

The two — and other death squads working in pairs — are to wreak carnage in landmark after landmark across Mumbai over the next three days, creating panic in this normally unflappable city and killing at least 174 people, according to revised government estimates.

----

 

Sebastian D'Souza hears the gunfire at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus from his office across the street at the Mumbai Mirror tabloid.

 

He follows the sound through the sprawling station, slipping unseen through parked trains. When he first catches sight of the young men, he doesn't realize they are the gunmen. They look so innocent. Then he sees them shooting.

 

"They were firing from their hips. Very professional. Very cool," says D'Souza, the newspaper's photo editor. For more than 45 minutes he follows as they move from platform to platform shooting and throwing grenades. Often, D'Souza isn't even 30 feet away. The few police at the station are either dead, in hiding or had long fled.

 

There are billboards everywhere, signs of India's economic boom. At one point, he photographs them standing beneath a tea company sign. They appear to be having a calm conversation. "WAKE UP!" the billboard reads.

----

 

They were 10 gunmen, well-trained and armed with assault rifles and grenades, officials say. They had scouted their targets ahead of time. The knew the hallways and the basements. They even carried bags of almonds for energy. Police say they were Muslim extremists from Pakistan, and may be tied to India's long-running insurgency in the disputed, largely Muslim, Himalayan region of Kashmir.

 

They landed in an inflatable rubber boat not long after nightfall on a Mumbai beach, a semi-isolated stretch of sand and stone where fisherman bring in their boats during the daytime. From there, it was less than a 15-minutes walk to their major targets. The group fanned out across the city, hitting 10 spots in two hours. They chose some of the best-known landmarks, many popular with foreigners and the city's elite. Many of the attacks ended in minutes. But at two luxury hotels and a Jewish center they dug in, fending off hundreds of commandos for days.

----

 

About 9:30 p.m.

 

Nariman House, Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement.

 

A gunshot startles the family of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and others inside the recently renovated five-story Jewish center on a bumpy, unpaved back road off a main street in Mumbai's trendy Colaba neighborhood. The pale yellow building, with its synagogue, kosher dining room and friendly rabbi, was a magnet for Israeli backpackers looking for a place to celebrate holidays while on vacation and an important religious center for Mumbai's small Jewish community.

 

Someone must be lighting firecrackers, thought Sandra Samuel, a maid at the center.

 

Then a gunman came up the stairs.

She and another employee duck into a room and hid in terror as explosions and gunshots rattle the building through the night.

 

"They destroyed everything, the lift, the dining room, everything," she says later.

 

At about the same time

Leopold Cafe and Bar

 

The place known as Leo's is one of the city's famous tourist restaurants, a joint crammed with glass-topped tables, old travel posters and lounging backpackers drinking cheap beer.

 

There are maybe 100 people inside when two gunmen appear in the entrances. One lobs in a grenade. Then they open fire.

 

"It was total chaos ... People didn't know what was going on. Some hit the floor, some ran out of the side entrance or tried to find a place to hide," says Farzad Jehani, who owns the restaurant with his brother.

 

The assault lasts, perhaps, two minutes. When it's over, at least four foreigners and three Indians are dead, though the brothers aren't sure because patrons quickly rush the casualties to hospitals in passing cars and taxis.

 

By then the gunmen have left, jogging through the streets and apparently moving on to one of India's most famous hotels just a few blocks away.

 

"They weren't aiming at anyone in particular. It was like they wanted to empty their magazines and do as much damage here as possible before heading to the Taj," Jehani says.

----

 

About 9:45 p.m.

Taj Mahal hotel

 

No one believes it's gunfire. Not at the Taj. Built more than a century ago by one of India's most powerful business families, the castle-like Taj Mahal is the crossroads of the city's elite. It has been the scene of countless society weddings, business meetings and expensive dates. It is an icon of Mumbai.

But it is gunfire that two men are spraying across the ornate lobby, with its gray marble floor and Persian carpets the size of small swimming pools.

 

Dalbir Bains, who runs a high-end Mumbai lingerie shop, is sitting down to a steak dinner by the pool with friends. They joke about hearing gunfire. Quickly, though, screams fill the hotel and her laughs turn to terror. She runs upstairs and huddles under a table in a restaurant with about 50 others, desperately trying to be quiet.

 

"The gun shots were following us," says Bains.

----

 

9:47 p.m.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

 

injured commuters and dead bodies lie at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India.

 

The gunmen shoot toward a large glass-fronted restaurant.

They are "firing at people waiting for the train. Luggage was spread everywhere. The place was full of blood. There were lots of people lying there dead," says manager Fongen Fernandes.

 

Soon, though, everyone is dead or hiding. Except for corpses, the platforms are empty, d'Souza says.

 

The worst of the carnage appears to be in a waiting room for out-of-town trains. It was filled with dozens of bodies, many shot in the head. Overall, authorities say, 53 people are killed.

 

Eventually, the gunmen steal a truck and drive away. A little later, one is killed by police and another, the only gunmen taken alive, is captured. He is Pakistani.

 

At the station, authorities use wooden baggage carts to clear the corpses.

Says Fernandes: "They collected them away like sheep and goats."

----

 

About 10 p.m.

Oberoi Hotel

 

Joseph Joy Pulithara, a waiter, is working in the Chinese restaurant of this modern luxurious monolith when the gunfire starts, sending diners and staff scrambling. Pulithara is shot in the leg. A woman nearby him is shot in the head.

 

The gunmen run into another restaurant and fire unrelenting bursts at the diners and waiters, says Andreina Varagona, an American meditation teacher shot in the arm and leg. At least a dozen people fall to the floor dead, including one of Varagona's friends.

 

"There were bodies everywhere," Varagona says. "I felt like I was in a movie."

 

The attackers herd dozens of survivors into a stairwell. One demands to see their IDs, saying he was looking for Americans and Britons. Then he forces them upstairs, says Alex Chamberlain, a British guest.

 

Chamberlain and many others throughout the hotel dash out in the chaos.

Staff in one restaurant spirit at least 60 diners into a back kitchen and then hustle them to another room where they are served refreshments and then escorted outside, according to the hotel's chairman P.R.S. Oberoi.

 

Other guests barricade themselves in their rooms.

 

The gunmen are taking hostages.

----

 

10:35 p.m.

 

Gunmen briefly attack a police station. A few minutes later they open fire at a hospital, then ambush a police car, killing five officers and driving away. Soon after, a bomb explodes in a taxi in the suburban neighborhood of Vile Parle. About 15 minutes later, a bomb goes off in another taxi inside the city. One person is believed killed.

----

 

Thursday morning

The Oberoi

 

A banner hanging from a window carries a simple but wrenching plea: "Save Us."

 

Inside, hundreds are hiding in their rooms, or being held hostage.

The gunmen, armed with rifles and grenades, push Egyptian businessman Osama Embabi into a room where four or five people — guests from other Arab countries and hotel workers — are already being held.

 

"They shouted and warned us not to leave the room or we would be shot," he says.

 

Meanwhile, Lo Hoei Yen, a 28-year-old Singaporean lawyer, calls her husband, Michael, from her cell phone. She is being held captive, she tells him, and the gunmen threaten to kill her if Indian forces storm the hotel, Singapore media reports say.

 

After 9 a.m., Indian forces begin what will be a daylong operation to rescue the Oberoi hostages.

Lo's body is found on the 19th floor.

----

 

Thursday

 

Across the city, it seems the Indian police and military may never catch up. They are fighting gunmen in three locations, including two of the city's most famous landmarks, and hundreds of people are trapped. Fires burn occasionally in both hotels, and firefighters with water hoses and cherry pickers battle the blazes, but only when it's safe enough to approach the buildings. Gunshots and explosions have become the soundtrack of south Mumbai.

 

Residents have faced terrorism before, but this time it seems different.

"There is a limit a city can take," says Ayesha Dar, a 33-year-old homemaker.

----

 

10:45 a.m.

Nariman House

 

Meeta Gohil, in green dress, and relatives and neighbors mourn as they attend the funeral of Haresh Gohil, who was killed by gunmen near Chabad-Lubavitch center

 

The Jewish center is silent, except for the wailing of a child.

Samuel, the maid, cracks open the door of her hiding place and sees a deserted staircase. She runs up one flight and finds the rabbi's 2-year-old son Moshe crying beside his parents and two Israeli guests who lay still on the floor. His pants are drenched with blood. She grabs the boy, bolts down the stairs and out of the building.

----

 

The soldiers who fought the gunman say they were tough, bitter opponents.

"It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that," an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit, his face wrapped in a black mask, tells reporters after his units stormed the hotels. The attackers were "very determined and remorseless."

----

 

Friday

About 7 a.m.

Nariman House

 

Black-clad commandos fan out on the rooftops of the evacuated buildings surrounding the Jewish center and begin laying down covering fire.

A helicopter drops toward the roof. One after another, masked commandos slither down a rope. The helicopter returns with more commandos, then a third time with equipment.

 

Slowly, the assault team descends an outside staircase and begins clearing the building.

 

A small explosion erupts from the house. A few seconds later, two gunshots, a pause, then two more. For hours, a similar pattern is repeated. Holes are blasted in the building as hundreds of gawkers cheer from nearby streets.

----

 

Friday morning

The Oberoi

 

Dozens of hostages clutching passports are rushed from the hotel into waiting cars, buses and ambulances.

 

At 3 p.m., the government announces it has killed the two gunmen inside and taken control of the building.

 

The pair had killed 32 people — 22 hotel guests and 10 workers — and wounded many more.

 

By evening, more than 100 former hostages have been escorted from the building.

----

 

5:39 p.m.

Nariman House

 

Indian commandos launch a rocket at one of the Jewish center's upper floors, shaking the neighborhood and blowing out windows in neighboring buildings.

----

 

6:15 p.m.

Nariman House

 

A small group of commandos appear in the street, raising their rifles in triumph. The crowd breaks through police barriers and floods the streets in celebration.

Inside the building, nine people lay dead, including the rabbi and his wife. According to Israeli media reports, some are wrapped in prayer shawls.

----

 

Overnight Friday

Taj Mahal

 

fire engulfs a part of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India

 

Fighting continues at the seaside hotel. Authorities say one, perhaps two, gunmen are still inside. Explosions and gunfire ring out intermittently, intensifying at dawn. Fire, once again, streams out through broken windows, lapping at the stone sides of the building. Clouds of black smoke rise high above the Arabian Sea. Outside, dozens of reporters crouch in the seaside plaza in front of the Taj, and sometimes a half-dozen TV reporters can be heard at once providing breathless commentaries about the situation. Few bother to take cover.

----

 

8:30 a.m. Saturday

Taj Mahal.

 

After so much destruction it ends quietly. There is no announcement of victory. One minute, there are explosions inside, and a few minutes later a man walks casually out into the plaza out front — a place where soldiers in body armor had been sprinting in fear — and waves for firefighters to come put out the remaining blazes.

 

The Taj Mahal siege is declared over, ending three days of terror. It has been 60 hours since the first pair of gunmen walked into the train station.

Outside, bits of burned debris fill the plaza. Strings of white bed sheets, tied together, hang from the windows, reminders of those who escaped. Almost a dozen buses are parked nearby, just a few feet from the Arabian Sea. They are filled with soldiers and commandos finally getting a break.

 

Hundreds of people push their way toward the buses, pressing flowers into their hands.

 

 

Tim Sullivan contributed to this story from New Delhi and Ravi Nessman from Mumbai. Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz, Anita Chang, Jenny Barchfield and Paul Peachey contributed to this report.