Indian commandos today killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, ending a 60-hour rampage that killed 195 people in India's financial capital.

Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room luxury hotel after dawn Saturday as Indian forces ended the siege there in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish center and found nine hostages dead.

"There were three terrorists, we have killed them," said JK Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit.

Some hotel guests were still believed to be in their rooms. "They are still scared, so even when we request them to come out and identify ourselves, they are naturally afraid," Dutt said.

With the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India's history, authorities have now shifted their focus to who is behind the attacks.

A previously unknown Muslim group has claimed responsibility and it has been reported that two of the militants were British-born Pakistanis but the Foreign Office, investigating a possible British link, said no evidence had been found.

A senior Indian intelligence source said that suggestions that British citizens of Pakistani origin had checked into the Taj Mahal Palace hotel some weeks before the attacks to reconnoitre the building were being taken seriously. Credit card and passport details of thousands of guests will be pored over by forensic computer experts, he said.

Unconfirmed reports in the Indian media have suggested that the terrorists were able to stockpile explosives inside the hotel and intended to blow up the entire building.

A spokesman for the Taj did not comment on the enquiries being made into the hotel's guests but did say that the authorities had not made any moves to investigate its staff. It has been suggested in the Indian media that some of the terrorists had taken jobs at the Taj to reconnoitre the building.

He said: "We have no indications or information from the investigating authorities that any of the hotel employees or contractual staff has been involved in this terrorist attack."

Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman was from Pakistan and pointed a finger of blame at their neighbour, Islamabad who have denied involvement and promised to help in the investigation. A team of FBI agents has been sent to India to aid the investigations.

Some 295 people were wounded in the violence that started when at least a dozen heavily armed assailants attacked 10 sites across Mumbai on Wednesday night. At least 20 soldiers and police were among the dead.

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