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 | Cricket tour in doubt

One of the earliest signs that something was wrong came at about 10.30pm, local time, when two men were seen carrying AK47 rifles and grenades at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Bombay’s main railway station.

Seconds later, the men were spraying the concourse with gunfire, sending the passengers running for their lives. Within minutes, Bombay’s security forces were inundated with news of a horrifying wave of terror attacks across the city.

A five-minute car journey south of the train station, men armed with bombs, grenades and automatic rifles stormed the lobby of Bombay’s best hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace. Witnesses said that they targeted British and American citizens.

“They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts,” said Rakesh Patel, a British guest at the Taj, whose face was blackened by the smoke.

He told an Indian television channel that he was one of about a dozen foreigners who had been herded together by two armed men and taken up to the hotel’s upper floors.

“They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof,” he said. He and another hostage managed to escape when they reached the 18th floor, he said.

Mr Patel was speaking to the camera when there was a loud explosion from the roof of the hotel.

Outside the Taj Mahal Palace, injured guests were being stretchered away on the hotel’s golden-coloured luggage carts. Inside, there were reports that five “terrorists” were holed up in a room on an upper floor.

At about 3.30am, the heritage wing of the hotel, one of Bombay’s iconic structures, was on fire. News anchors paused in their hitherto breathless commentaries as they watched the landmark burn. In the surrounding streets, desperate ex-pat businessmen and local street hawkers did their best to account for the whereabouts of colleagues and friends.

In the initial confusion and terror, people had sought refuge where they could. Bhisham Mansukhani, a journalist, was attending a wedding reception at the Taj, a luxurious haunt favoured by foreign businessmen and Bollywood’s elite, as the first shots were fired.

“I was inside the bar when glass shards almost hit my eye,” he said. He joined 200 other guests as they rushed to seek sanctuary in the hotel’s business centre.

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