Mumbai latest

Gunbattles are raging in Mumbai as Indian special forces try to rescue the remaining hostages being held by terrorists. Officials have been vowing to bring a quick end to the nearly two-day-long stand-off which has killed almost 150 people, including a wealthy British businessman, and injured hundreds more. A hole has been blown in the outer wall of a Jewish centre as commandos carried out the final stages of an assault on Islamist militants who are holding around half a dozen Israeli nationals and a rabbi inside. Television pictures showed the building cloaked with thick smoke after the blast. Elsewhere, two militants were killed as forces took control of the Trident-Oberoi hotel and released 143 hostages. Police said 24 bodies had been found. At the hotel, well-dressed foreigners and Indians, some dragging their suitcases, trickled out and were escorted into waiting buses and cars. One foreign member of the hotel staff left holding a baby in his arms, others wept as police showed them photographs of dead relatives for identification. Across the city, frequent gunshots and large explosions rang out from the luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel as elite commandos fought cat-and-mouse battles with a lone gunmen. The head of an elite commando unit said the militants knew the layout of the hotel better than they did and called them "a very determined lot, remorseless". He said he had seen 50 bodies in the Taj, including 12 to 15 in one room. Meanwhile, Lieutenant-General N Thamburaj spoke of the lone gunman, saying: "He is moving in two floors, there is a dancefloor area where apparently he has cut off all the lights. "This morning while carrying out the operation we heard the sound of a lady and a gentleman, so it is possible that this terrorist has got two or more hostages with him." On Thursday, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of "a cost" if his country's neighbours did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch such attacks. One of the militants arrested in Mumbai was a Pakistani national, the interior minister of Maharashtra state, R R Patil, said. Commandos found a Mauritian national identity card, seven credit cards, more than $2,000 in cash and Indian rupees at the Taj hotel. An estimated 25 men armed with assault rifles and grenades - at least some of whom arrived by sea - had fanned out across Mumbai on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including the city's top two luxury hotels. At least eight foreigners, including British yachting magnate Andreas Liveras, three Germans, one Australian, a Canadian, an Italian and a Japanese national, are among the dead.

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ITN | November 28, 2008

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