By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

MUMBAI, INDIA (ANS) – Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing at least 80 people and injuring 250 more.

The BBC reported that at least seven high-profile locations were hit in India’s financial capital, including two luxury hotels where hostages are reported to be held.

A fire has destroyed part of the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai’s most famous hotel, which is now ringed by troops.

Police said four suspected terrorists have been killed and nine arrested.

The BBC said that as day broke in Mumbai, the situation on the ground was still confused with reports of gunfire and explosions at between seven and 16 locations.

The city’s main commuter train station, a hospital, a restaurant and two hotels - locations used by foreigners as well as local businessmen and leaders - are among those places caught up in the violence.

According to the BBC, commandos have now surrounded the two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident, where it is believed that the armed men are holding dozens of hostages.

A BBC correspondent outside the Taj Mahal Palace said there had been a series of gun shots between police and the armed men, and that 11 officers were killed in the skirmishes.

Eyewitness reports suggest the attackers singled out British and American passport holders.

If the reports are true, the BBC said its security correspondent Frank Gardner believes it implies an Islamic motive - attacks inspired or co-ordinated by al-Qaeda.

The BBC said a claim of responsibility has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen. However, a BBC correspondent says that assertion could be a hoax or assumed name for another group.

The motive is far from clear - but the attacks come amid elections in several Indian states, including in disputed Kashmir.

The BBC said that in the latest developments, fire crews are evacuating people from the upper floors of the Taj Mahal Palace, from where smoke can still be seen billowing although the blaze has been extinguished.

Officials say, the BBC reported, that the head of Mumbai’s anti-terrorism unit and two other senior officers are among those killed.

Gunmen opened fire at about 11 p.m. local time at the sites in southern Mumbai.

“The terrorists have used automatic weapons and in some places grenades have been lobbed,” AN Roy, police commissioner of Maharashtra state, told the BBC.

Local TV images showed blood-splattered streets, and bodies being taken into ambulances.

One eyewitness told the BBC he had seen a gunman opening fire in the Taj Mahal’s lobby.

He said, “We all moved through the lobby in the opposite direction and another gunman then appeared towards where we were moving and he started firing immediately in our direction.”

A British tourist told the BBC she spent six hours barricaded in the Oberoi hotel.

“There were about 20 or 30 people in each room. The doors were locked very quickly, the lights turned off, and everybody just lay very still on the floor,” she said.

The BBC said there has been a wave of bombings in Indian cities in recent months which has left scores of people dead. Most of the attacks have been blamed on Muslim militants, although police have also arrested suspected Hindu extremists.

Mumbai itself has also been attacked in the past: in July 2006 a series of bomb attacks on busy commuter trains killed almost 190 people and injured more than 700.

The BBC reported that police accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of planning those attacks, which they said were carried out by an Islamist militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba. However, Pakistan rejected the allegation, saying there was no evidence that its intelligence staff were involved.