FACTBOX: Five facts on India's Mumbai

(Reuters) - Gunmen have killed at least 101 people and are holding hundreds more hostage in the besieged Indian city of Mumbai, city authorities said on Thursday.

Here are five facts on the city.

* Known as Bombay until 1996, Mumbai is India's largest city, and one of the world's biggest. The capital of India's richest state, Maharashtra, it is an economic powerhouse -- home to the headquarters of most Indian corporates, but also marked by lopsided economic development.

* Homegrown giants the Tata Group and Reliance Industries are based in the city, as is India's vibrant Bollywood Hindi language movie industry, and its biggest stock exchange. Mumbai is also home to Asia's largest slum, Dharavi, which has more than one million inhabitants.

* Local Marathis make up less than half of its resident population of more than 17 million. Thousands of impoverished Indian migrants move to the city every day to seek a living. In recent years it has been periodically hit by violent regional rivalries.

* Mumbai has been hit by a series of terror attacks blamed on Islamists militants over the last 15 years. The most deadly violence in recent years was in July 2006, when bomb blasts killed more than 180 people, and struck at the city's suburban rail network.

* About two and a half times the size of Washington, the sprawling west coast port city stretches over 440 sq km (170 sq miles). Formed by reclaiming land between seven islands, it is one of the five most densely populated cities in the world.

Source: Reuters

(Writing by Gillian Murdoch; Editing by Bill Tarrant Singapore Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Bill Tarrant)