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78 dead in Mumbai terror attacks

Terrorists target luxury hotels, tourist spot, train station; 200 hurt

Agencies, Mumbai
Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in at least seven attacks in India s financial capital, killing at least 78 people and wounding at least 200, officials told Al* last night.
The gunmen were specifically targeting Britons and Americans, media reports said, and may be holding hostages.
The Times of India reports that unknown outfit Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility of the attacks.
The gunmen also attacked police headquarters in south Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks, which began
late Wednesday and continued into Thursday morning, took place.
"We are under fire, there is shooting at the gate," said constable A. Shetti by phone from police headquarters.
Hours after the first attacks, A.N. Roy, a senior police officer, said police continued to battle the gunmen.
"The terrorists have used automatic weapons and in some places grenades have been lobbed, the encounters are still going on and we are trying to overpower them, " Roy said.
Johnny Joseph, chief secretary for Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, said 78 people had been killed and 200 had been injured.
The motive for the attacks was not immediately clear but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terror attacks, often blamed on Muslim militants, including a scries of blasts in July 2007 that killed 187 people.
Gunmen opened fire on two of the city's best known luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi. They also attacked the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a Mumbai landmark.
A British restaurant-goer at the Oberoi told Sky News television that the attackers were singling out Britons and Americans.
Alex Chamberlain said a gunman, a young man of 22 or 23, ushered 30 or 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and ordered everyone to put up theirhands.
"They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy. who, you know, 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 said.
Chamberlain said the gunman spoke in Hindi or Urdu.
He managed to slip away from the group as they were forced to walk up the stairs, but said most of the group was still being kept hostage.
Early Thursday morning, several European lawmakers were among those still barricaded inside the Taj, a century-old seaside hotel complex and one of the city's best-known destinations.
”1 was in the main lobby and there was all of a sudden a lot of firing outside,* said Sajjad Karim, part of a delegation of European lawmakers visiting Mumbai ahead of a forthcoming EU-lndia summit. He turned to get away "and all of a sudden another gunmen 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,* he told The Associated Press over his mobile phone.
Hours later, he remained holed up in a hotel restaurant, unsure if the incident was over, and whether it was safe to come out.
At the Oberoi, police officer P.I. Patil said shots had been fired inside and the hotel had been cordoned off. He would not give any other details.