By IANS,
Mumbai : At least two people, one of them a foreign tourist, were killed and nearly 25 injured as suspected terrorists struck in at least seven places, including a busy railway teminus and two five-star hotels, in this commercial capital of India Wednesday night, officials said.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said the attacks were suspected to be “coordinated terrorist acts”, and added that automatic weapons like AK-47 and AK-56 and semi-automatic rifles were apparently used. Most of the injured were policemen.
It appeared that small groups of heavily armed terrorists sneaked into busy public places, mostly in south Mumbai, leading to a scare in the metropolis that has been a target of terror attacks in recent years.
Many of the locations targeted, mostly in upscale south Mumbai, were favourite hangouts of foreign tourists.
Police official said suspected terrorists opened fire at police and paramilitary forces outside the Hotel Taj Intercontinental in south Mumbai between 10.15 p.m. and 10.30 p.m.
The police officials, who refused to speak on record because it was too early to confirm anything, said firing was on near the five-star hotel where around 2,000 guests and staff were stranded.
The body of a foreign woman guest was recovered from the Taj Hotel and two terrorists were holed up inside the building, a police official said.
At least 90 percent portion of the 22-storey building was plunged into darkness as authorities cut off power in a precautionary measure.
Minutes later, bullets were fired near the Hotel Trident (previously known as Hotel Oberoi) – another five-star hotel barely a kilometre away from the Taj. At least 1,000 tourists were inside the hotel, which is in a high-security zone and lies just behind the Air India and Maharashtra legislature buildings.
Suspected terrorists also opened indiscriminate firing near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (previously known as Victoria Terminus), the headquarters of the Central Railway, which is a world heritage building and remains crowded almost throughout the day.
A terrorist was hiding inside the railway terminus where thousands of people have been evacuated.
As a precautionary measure, authorities suspended suburban and other railway services.
Later in the night, two bomb blasts, one in Vile Parle, a residential suburb in north Mumbai, and another in Mazgaon, also injured an unspecified number of people, the police officials said.
The blast in Vile Parle occurred in a taxi, which was blown into pieces.
There was a firing reported from the Bade Miya Street behind the Hotel Taj.
All roads linking south Mumbai with the rest of the metropolis were barricaded.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh urged people to maintain peace and calm even as a Red Alert was sounded across Maharashtra state.