Mumbai attacks kill 80, police shoot four gunmen

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least 80 people in a series of attacks in India's financial capital Mumbai and troops began moving into two five-star hotels on Thursday where Western hostages were being held, local television said.

Police said they had shot dead four gunmen and arrested nine suspects.

However, the chief minister of Maharashtra state said the situation was not yet contained.

"The situation is still not under control and we are trying to flush out any more terrorists hiding inside the two hotels," Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra's chief minister, told a news conference.

Gunfire and explosions were heard at the landmark Taj Mahal hotel and thick plumes of smoke rose from the building, witnesses said. There were also explosions at the Oberoi hotel and firing at a hospital where gunmen were surrounded.

"The terrorists are throwing grenades at us from the rooftop of the Taj and trying to stop us from moving in," Ashok Patil, a police inspector told Reuters.

Police said at least 250 people were wounded in the attacks which also targeted a railway station and the Cafe Leopold, perhaps the most famous restaurant and hang-out for tourists in the city.

An organization calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen said it was behind the attacks, television channels said. The previously little known group sent an email to news organizations claiming responsibility.

"THEY HAD BOMBS"

"I guess they were after foreigners, because they were asking for British or American passports," said Rakesh Patel, a British witness who lives in Hong Kong and was staying at the Taj Mahal hotel on business. "They had bombs."

"They came from the restaurant and took us up the stairs," he told the NDTV news channel, smoke stains covering his face. "Young boys, maybe 20 years old, 25 years old. They had two guns."

India has suffered a wave of bomb attacks in recent years. Most have been blamed on Islamist militants, although police have also arrested suspected Hindu extremists thought to be behind some of the attacks.

The latest attack, apparently aimed at least partly at prosperous Western tourists, is bound to spook investors in one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing economies.

Hemant Karkare, the chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai, was killed during the attacks, police said.

"We have shot dead four terrorists and managed to arrest nine suspected terrorists," P.D. Ghadge, a police officer at Mumbai's central control room, told Reuters.