MUMBAI, India — MUMBAI, India - Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India's commercial capital, last night, killing more than 100 people in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city's largest train station, a movie theater and a hospital.
Even by the standards of terrorism in India, which has suffered a rising number of terrorist attacks this year, the assaults were particularly brazen and different in scale and execution. The attackers used boats to reach the urban peninsula where they hit, and their targets were sites popular with tourists.
Mumbai police said the attacks killed at least 101 people and wounded 287, according to preliminary reports. Guests who had escaped the hotels told television stations that the attackers were taking hostages.
Witnesses interviewed by television networks told of attackers sweeping through two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Hilton, and separating American and British tourists from other guests for use as hostages.
Authorities believed seven to 15 foreigners were hostages at the hotel, said Anees Ahmed, a top state official. It was also unclear where the hostages were in the Taj Mahal.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said U.S. officials were not aware of any American casualties but were checking. He could not address reports that hostages might include Westerners.
Gunfire and explosions rang out well into the night. Hours after the assaults began, the landmark Taj Mahal Palace, next to the iconic Gateway of India, was in flames. Fire also raged inside the Oberoi Hotel, according to police.
Up to 16 coordinated groups at nine sites, most in the southern part of the city, also hit the domestic airport, the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminal and a restaurant called Cafe Leopold, a popular spot for tourists. Shoes, shattered glass and bits of twisted metal littered the area around the eating place.
The gunmen also attacked police headquarters in south Mumbai, according to news reports.
"We are under fire. There is shooting at the gate," Constable A. Shetti told the Associated Press by phone.
Near the Vile Parle station of the city's Western train line, a bomb went off in a taxi on the highway about 10 p.m. Parts of the vehicle could be seen scattered up to 100 feet away. Four people injured nearby were taken to a hospital.
