November | 2008 | Kristenmomof3's Xanga Site

They showed up Wednesday, as they do every night: businessmen for meetings in the elegant restaurant that overlooks the harbor, politicians for cocktails in a bar with velvet seats and wood and marble floors, friends for a steak dinner by the pool.

But then the shooting started.

Explosions followed in and around the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower — a Mumbai landmark with sweeping staircases, onyx columns and high alabaster ceilings, known at the playground of the city’s elite since it opened in 1903.

At least 101 people were killed in coordinated attacks when the teams of gunmen stormed the Taj and another hotel, a popular restaurant, hospitals, a Jewish center, a crowded train station and at least five other sites. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.

At the Taj, anyone who could ran for cover.

Dalbir Bains, who runs a lingerie shop in Mumbai, had just sat down for dinner by the pool when she heard the first shots. She ran upstairs and huddled under a table in the Sea Lounge restaurant. She, and about 50 others who were with her, tried to remain as quiet as possible.

“The gun shots were following us,” said Bains.

It wasn’t until 4 a.m., more than six hours after the first shots rang out, that authorities began escorting people out of the hotel. That’s when Bains climbed down a fire ladder to safety.

A handful of people sneaked out earlier, including a group guided by security personnel who happened to be dining at the hotel. They shuffled five at a time down more than 20 flights of stairs. Many took their shoes off to minimize the noise.

The spiraling stairway was narrow and steep, and it was so hot they had to stop three times on the half-hour journey, said Manrico Iachia, the Italian executive vice president of Europ Assistance, an insurance firm.

Two men carried a woman in a wheelchair down, he said.

“The most important thing is not to be injured,” he said. “You are so close to freedom. But what does freedom mean if the bad guys are on the street waiting for you?”

Others were not so lucky. The gunmen are still believed to be holed up inside, holding as many as 15 foreigners hostage, said Anees Ahmed, a top state official.

From outside the hotel, people could be seen silhouetted in the windows of their hotel rooms, apparently unable to get past a fire that smoldered for hours and then erupted into flames shortly after 3 a.m.

Some raised their fists vainly against the glass; others flicked their lights on and off in distress. One man banged a large lamp against the window. A couple took turns waving a white flag.

Witnesses said about 200 people — hotel staff, diners at the Souk restaurant, and people attending an India-Korea business conference — hid together for five hours in a conference room at the top of the adjacent Taj Tower.

They drew the curtains and crouched under tables. Hotel staff passed around glasses of water.

Women were forced to urinate in ice buckets and men relieved themselves in the kitchen.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggests the group behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks is based outside the country as police battle to release hostages the day after more than 100 people were killed.

A standoff continued at the Oberoi Hotel, where about 100 members of a specialized unit of the Indian police undertook an operation to rescue four to five foreigners hostage on the 19th floor.

CNN producer Phil O’Sullivan reported a “very loud explosion came from right deep in the hotel” and a lot of shooting.

At the nearby Taj Mahal hotel, CNN’s Sara Sidner reported another blast had rocked the building and flames could be seen.

Watch more on explosion at hotel »

Medics took stretchers into the hotel and brought out bodies. Police were going floor to floor to flush out gunmen. About five of them were believed to be holed up in the Taj; another three in Oberoi, officials said.

Maharashtra official Bhushan Gagrani said the Taj situation was “almost sorted out” and that police expected to clear the Oberoi by tonight. Hostages remained, but he didn’t say how many. Read more from witnesses

Meanwhile, Singh suggested the group behind the attacks was based outside India and probably had “external linkages.”

“It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the financial capital of the country,” he said. Watch Singh speak about the attacks »

The death toll from the series of coordinated attacks was at 101, including at least six foreigners, by Thursday afternoon authorities said. The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed one of its citizens had been killed. The nationalities of the others was still being checked.

Another 314 people were wounded in the attacks, including seven British and two Australian citizens. Watch more on who is responsible »

In addition, at least nine gunmen were killed in fighting with police.

Also among the dead was Hemant Karkare, the chief of the Mumbai police’s anti-terror squad, and as many as 11 police officers. Watch as new gunfire erupts at the Taj hotel »

An American woman who was still inside the Taj with her husband told CNN by phone Thursday that television feeds into the room had stopped and she did not know what was going on.

We have water and we’re hunkered down and patient and ready to wait it out,” she said. “We’re OK. Last night was a different story, but today we’re OK.”

The woman, whom CNN is not identifying so as not to disclose her location, said she heard gunfire outside her room Wednesday night and “a man with an American accent screaming for help.”

Authorities found 8 kilograms (17 pounds) of RDX, one of the most powerful kinds of military explosives, at a restaurant near the Taj, indicating that the attackers may have been planning more violence.

Gunmen also remained holed up in a building called Chabad House, where several Jewish families live. Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg, the city’s envoy for the community, was being held inside with his wife, a member of the Hasidic Jewish movement said. The couple’s 18-month-old baby was released unharmed.
Read more on group claiming responsibility

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Igal Palmor told CNN that the situation at the house was unclear.

Two women and an infant were seen escaping from the building but three to four residents remained captive inside, an Indian official said.

Police said gunmen fired indiscriminately from the building. Stray bullets killed a couple in their home and a 16-year-old boy who stepped outside, police said.

Police surrounded the building and exchanged gunfire in which one of the gunmen reportedly was shot, CNN’s sister station CNN-IBN said.

A standoff at a fourth location — the Cama Hospital for women and infants — appeared to have been resolved by Thursday morning, CNN-IBN reported. It was not immediately known whether gunmen at the hospital fled or were killed.

Authorities locked down Mumbai and asked residents to stay inside. The stock market in the city — India‘s financial hub — was closed, as were schools and colleges. The city is also home to Bollywood, the Hindi-language film industry. Watch the attacks on various key Mumbai sites »

Government officials said the attacks caught them completely unaware.

Police say the attackers came by boats to the waterfront near the Gateway of India monument.

Of the nine suspects arrested in connection with the attacks, seven are fishermen. Police also found a boat loaded with explosives near the Taj, which is located on the waterfront.

“Those men were wearing jackets and they carried big big bags,” one fisherman told CNN-IBN.

Said another: “We asked, ‘Where are you coming from?’ They said, ‘Go do your work.’”

The gunmen then hijacked cars — including a police van — and broke up into at least three groups to carry out the attacks, police said.

One group headed toward the Cafe Leopold, a popular hangout for Western tourists, firing indiscriminately at passers-by on the street. They then opened fire and lobbed grenades at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, a Victorian building. Watch analysis on what the intentions were behind the attacks »

As police rushed to the scene of the attacks, gunmen attacked the Cama Hospital. Two other groups attacked the Oberoi and Taj hotels.

A man told local television that he was in the Oberoi around 10 p.m. when gunmen entered the lobby and began rounding up guests, asking for anyone with a U.S. or British passport and taking about 15 of them hostage.

Several Indian news outlets reported receiving e-mails from a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, claiming responsibility for the attacks. CNN was not able to verify the reports.

Reaction from the United Nations, United States and United Kingdom was swift as world leaders joined in condemning the attacks. Read more on the international reaction

India has suffered a number of attacks in recent years, including a string of bombs that ripped through packed Mumbai commuter trains and platforms during rush hour in July 2006. About 209 people were killed in that attack.

Last July, a series of synchronized bomb blasts in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad left 49 dead and more than 100 wounded, police said.

All times are in GMT.

1114 There has been another massive explosion at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel – the second in about 15 minutes, reports say. Smoke can be seen billowing out of the building.

1113 The prime minister adds: “It is evident that the group which carried out the attacks is based outside the country, it came with the single-minded determination to carry out havoc in the financial capital of the country.”

1112 Mr Singh says the attackers were “intent on creating a sense of panic by choosing high-profile targets” and praises the courage of police.

1110 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says in a televised address that his government will “take all necessary measures to look after the well-being of affected families”.

1108 Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. “ALL LIVE UPDATES – PLEASE STOP TWEETING about #Mumbai police and military operations,” a tweet says.

1105 India’s Times Now television channel reports that “the loudest possible explosion we’ve heard in the last 15 hours has come from the Taj hotel in the last few minutes”. It says an ambulance has just arrived at the hotel’s main entrance.

1100 The Indian navy says its forces have boarded a cargo vessel they believe to be linked to the attacks, the Associated Press news agency reports. Navy spokesman Capt Manohar Nambiar says the MV Alpha had recently come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan.

1057 Dr Robert Bradnock, an expert on South Asian politics at Kings College, London, tells the BBC the Indian government had already been under pressure for failing to cut the number of attacks in Mumbai before Wednesday. He says the government is trying to engage opposition politicians in a bid to create a consensus on how best to approach the problem. The ruling Congress party is facing a test as voting in four state elections get underway on Thursday.

1050 The Mumbai stock exchange and commodities exchange – India’s main financial markets – have been closed for the day, and many offices are shut. Airlines say flights in and out of Mumbai are largely unaffected, but they are monitoring the situation.

1045 Middlesex captain Shaun Udal says it was a “sensible decision” to postpone the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. “I don’t see any point carrying on with the tournament in such circumstances,” he tells Sky Sports News.

1044 Mumbai resident Malini Agrewal tells BBC World News TV she had initially thought the explosions at the Trident Oberoi hotel, opposite where she lives, were “fireworks, perhaps a celebration to do with the cricket”. “We had no idea what we were dealing with. Then there were two tremors. Flames started to erupt from the hotel,” she says.

1040 The head of the governing Indian National Congress, Sonia Gandhi, has strongly condemned the attacks. “The dastardly terrorist attack in Mumbai is an act of cowardice and deserves the strongest condemnation,” she tells reporters in Delhi. “I urge the people of Mumbai to remain calm and firm in these testing times. I’m confident that the resilience of the people of Mumbai shall remain undeterred.”

1037 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to address the nation on television at 1630 local time (1100 GMT), the government says.

1029 Maj Gen RK Hooda, commander of the army in Maharashtra state, tells local TV channels that members of the National Security Guard are doing a room-by-room search of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. He says: “They started from the top floor and have come down to the 21st floor. There are 365 rooms to be searched… We don’t know about the number of hostages. We know there are four to five terrorists.”

1025 The CNN-ibn television channel reports from one of Mumbai’s railway stations that there are very few people out and about. One commuter said his train was virtually empty.

1015 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says that the Chinese government strongly condemns the attacks in Mumbai. “China always opposes terrorist attacks of any kind, and we express our condolences to the victims,” he says.

1008 India’s Times Now television channel reports a loud explosion outside the Oberoi hotel – the sixth in the last 35 minutes, it says.

1006 BBC Correspondent Mark Dummet says: Police seem to be taking a softly-softly approach, rather than charging in to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. That explains why it has taken so long to get through the hotel and why they have not cleared every corner.

1004: Jake Betts, a British lawyer who lives and works close to the Oberoi Hotel tells BBC World that the large number of foreigners working in Mumbai feel targeted. “At the moment we’re just sitting tight in our flat, trying to stay safe because we’re very close to everything. But when this all is over… we’re definitely going to have to re-appraise [our situation],” he says.

1000 The director-general of the UK’s Federation of Tour Operators says the “handful” of British nationals who had booked a holiday in Mumbai through its members had been accounted for and were safe.

0958 The Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament has been postponed in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, organisers say.

0955 India’s NDTV is broadcasting live pictures of commandos taking position outside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Gunshots can be heard.

0950 India’s Times Now television channel reports that at least five explosions have been heard at the Oberoi hotel in quick succession in the past few minutes. It also says Indian navy helicopters, assisted by the coast guard, are chasing a trawler in the Arabian Sea that is believed to have transported the gunmen to Mumbai.

0943 BBC Correspondent Mark Dummet, speaking outside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, says: There have been two further explosions at the hotel, followed by a round of gunfire. Clearly the situation remains uncertain and remains dangerous.

0938 British MEP Sajjad Karim says he listened as security forces fought gunmen “floor by floor and room by room” in an attempt to gain control of the Taj Mahal hotel overnight. Mr Karim, who was among a group who barricaded themselves in a basement, tells the Press Association he left the hotel at 0500 local time.

0936 Bachi Karkaria, of the Times of India, tells the BBC that Mumbai has been “terribly shaken” by the attacks. “No-one is safe and nothing can be taken for granted,” she says.

0930 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expresses concern about the attacks in Mumbai. He says: “We are deeply concerned by these developments, deeply concerned by the potential impact on Indian citizens and other citizens, and we will have further to say about this during the course of the day.”

0924 Security expert Rahul Roy Chaudhury, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, tells the BBC that it could be some time before the Taj Mahal Palace hotel is given the all-clear. He says: “The security services will have to go from room-to-room to make sure the hotel is entirely free of terrorists,” adding the gunmen could try to slip out among Indian nationals who had been taken hostage.

0920 BBC Correspondent Mark Dummet, speaking outside the main entrance of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, says: I have seen armed soldiers leading out a dozen or so of the guests, one of the men being carried by a soldier to a series of ambulances which are lined up here. It would seem as if the siege here at the Taj Hotel is over.

0915 Indian security forces have surrounded two of the top hotels in Mumbai, the Trident Oberoi and the Taj Mahal Palace, which were taken over by gunmen who launched co-ordinated attacks in the city late on Wednesday that have so far left 101 people dead and 287 injured. Hostages are reported to have been taken in both hotels, and commandos have been brought in to try to regain control of the buildings. Officials say another eight locations were attacked, but these have now been secured. Four attackers have been killed and nine arrested, they add.

A little-known group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen has said it carried out the attacks. The claim was made in a series of e-mails sent to news organisations. Mumbai city officials have recommended residents stay indoors and the country’s leading stock exchange has been closed for the day

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/27/india.attacks/?iref=mpstoryview

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