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It felt like India’s 9/11. Even in a country whose experience of terrorism dates back to its independence in 1947, the sight of Bombay’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel in flames after last night’s attacks was something that no one could ever have imagined.

For this was one of the nation’s most famous landmarks, an iconic building that encapsulated both the pomp and grandeur of the British Raj and the enduring vibrancy of India’s film and financial capital.

It was built in 1903 by Jamsetji N. Tata, the Indian industrialist, who believed that Bombay needed a grand hotel to take its place among the great cities of the world.

As thick black smoke billowed from its domed roof, and flames poured through its gothic arched windows, one Indian television anchor summed up the feelings of millions of watching Indians. “If America cannot forget the images of the World Trade Centre, this image of fire billowing out of this beautiful structure which represents Mumbai and its free spirit will not be forgotten here,” he said.

The symbolism was clearly no accident. The gunmen who stormed into the Taj last night appear to have set off a series of explosions with the specific intent of destroying the building.

Police suspect that they arrived by boat, mooring by the Gateway of India that was built in honour of King George V and Queen Mary in 1928.

They began their audacious assault at around 9.30pm by bursting into the hotel that was built in the Moorish, Oriental and Florentine styles on the waterfront overlooking the Arabian Sea. They opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd of well-heeled Indians and foreigners milling around the ornate lobby, with its famous cantilever stairway, onyx columns and crystal chandeliers.

As the masked gunmen started to move through the hotels’ corridors looking for foreigners, staff managed to warn many of the guests to stay in their rooms.

At 2.30am the army surrounded the building and began to storm it. At about 3.30am the fire started on the top floors of the hotel after a series of explosions and intermittent gunfire.

Firefighters tried to douse the flames but they were still raging by around 5am when there was a pause in the shooting.

Police said that nine gunmen were arrested and two were killed at the Taj. As about 100 terrified guests were finally evacuated from the hotel, the firefighters emerged too and described the scenes of devastation inside the pride of Bombay, with up to 100 guests still unaccounted for. “There’s major damage inside,” a fireman said as he emerged from the heritage wing of the hotel.

These were the rooms that had entertained everyone from Maharajahs and foreign heads of state to rock stars and billionaire industrialists.

The Beatles stayed in the hotel during their obsession with India, and John Lennon famously stayed with Yoko Ono in the hotel’s Rajput Suite, eating only from a macrobiotic menu specially prepared by the Taj’s chefs.

Royalty has often used the hotel, and members of the British royal family including Prince Charles, Prince Edward and Prince Phillip have stayed there, as have the King and Queen of Norway.

Other pop royalty has checked in, including Mick Jagger and Elvis Presley. Bill Clinton, the former US President, was also a guest.

Last night the corridors echoed with the sound of gunfire and explosions as the gunmen battled with the Maharashtra state police’s elite Anti-Terrorism Squad.

Hement Karkare, the squad’s head, was shot in the chest in the operation and soon succumbed to his wounds near the spot where Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, founded the Goa Liberation Group in the 1950s to demand the return of the Portuguese colony.

In its opulence, the hotel was often cited as an example of the contrast between the poverty-stricken slums of Bombay and the lavish grandeur of hotels that charge up to £2,000 per night for a room, over double the average annual income of an Indian citizen.

But even to ordinary Mumbaikers, as Bombay’s residents are known, it was a source more of pride than of envy — a majestic reminder of their city’s place in the world.

“Home to the royalty, heads of states, tycoons, captains of industry, corporate nomads and jet-setters, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a living tribute to Mumbai’s cosmopolitan ethos and dynamic spirit,” says the Taj’s website.

Now it stands, perhaps, as a monument to Indian terrorism — and the thousands of victims it has claimed since the country’s independence.

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