It felt like India's 9/11 | Co-ordinated attacks | Terrorist 'spectacular' expected | Islamist group suspected | City's history of violence | MEP fears | US promises united front |

At least 80 people were killed, 250 injured and up to 100 taken hostage by suspected Islamic terrorists in a series of attacks in Bombay targeting British and American citizens.

Militants attacked a crowded railway station, two luxury hotels and a backpacker bar with automatic rifles, bombs and grenades. All the sites were in the south of India’s financial capital.

The hostages were seized at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where a group of British MEPs were staying, and the Oberoi nearby. Paramilitary forces had gathered around both buildings. A police inspector said: “The terrorists are throwing grenades at us from the rooftop of the Taj and trying to stop us from moving in.”

A taxi was bombed near the international airport. At Leopold Café, a bar popular with tourists and backpackers, witnesses described pools of blood and bullet-scarred walls. Eleven police officers, including the chief of Bombay’s anti-terror squad, were killed in stand-offs with gunmen.

A group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen e-mailed Indian news organisations claiming responsibility.

The co-ordinated attacks, on soft Western targets, showed all the signs of an al-Qaeda strategy. Intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that al-Qaeda was plotting an attack. The first incidents were reported at about 10.30pm local time. Early accounts were confused as mobile phone networks jammed and the city’s police control room was flooded with calls from terrified members of the public. At first, the violence was thought to be part of a gang turf war. Then it became clear that it was a terror attack.

Five hours after the attack began, the Taj Majal Palace was set on fire, gutting the upper floors, where the hostages were thought to be held.

A police spokesman said: “We have only a very tenuous grasp on what is happening so far. People are scared. The incidents being reported are so many. Gunmen are under siege at several locations but we are worried about hitting civilians.” Later, police said that they had killed four suspected terrorists and arrested nine.

Memories are fresh of July 11, 2006, when 200 people were killed by seven bombs on Bombay’s train network.

The British MEP Sajjad Karim, who was staying at the Taj Mahal Palace, said: “I was in the lobby when gunmen came in and people started running . . . A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around. I ran into the hotel kitchen and then we were shunted into a restaurant in the basement. We are now in the dark in this room and we’ve barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad.”

*Foreign Office phone line for concerned relatives: 020 7 0080000.

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