MUMBAI, INDIA, AND BEIJING — Coordinated groups of gunmen shot and blasted their way through tourist sites in the Indian financial center of Mumbai late Wednesday and early today, killing at least 101 people and wounding more than 200 while apparently targeting American and British citizens for use as hostages.
The attackers swept through two luxury hotels favored by foreigners, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi, firing automatic weapons, throwing grenades and sending panicked guests scrambling for safety. Some guests were trapped inside the hotels for hours, even as a series of explosions set fire to the Taj hotel, a landmark along of Mumbai's waterfront.
Although Mumbai has been the scene of several terrorist attacks in recent years, experts said Wednesday's assaults required a previously unseen degree of reconnaissance and planning. The scale and synchronization of the attacks pointed to the likely involvement of experienced commanders, some said, suggesting possible foreign involvement.
Launching their attacks after dark, the terrorists struck almost simultaneously at the city's domestic airport and a railway station and sprayed gunfire at the Leopold Cafe, a restaurant popular with foreigners. As many as 16 groups hit nine sites on the southern flank of this crowded metropolis of 19 million.
Mumbai is South Asia's financial hub and an entertainment capital, with many of the glitzy targets symbolizing the new cosmopolitan face of the world's largest democracy.
Several witnesses said the gunmen demanded to see passports from cornered guests, separating American and British tourists from the others. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said U.S. officials were not aware of any American casualties but were still checking.
In the chaos and confusion, it was difficult to confirm details or determine the nationalities of hostages apparently being held on several floors of the damaged hotels. India's NDTV 24x7 news channel reported that the gunmen were holding more than a dozen foreigners, including a Belgian and an Indonesian.
Firefighters could be seen helping guests to safety, and some later reports suggested that hostages at the Taj had been freed. Other reports said there were attacks at two hospitals, a police station and the Mumbai office of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish outreach group, Chabad Lubavitch.
