by GEORGINA ROBINSON, ARJUN RAMACHANDRAN, MATT WADE

At least two Australians have been injured as terrorists attacked multiple locations across Mumbai, killing at least 80 people, wounding 900 and taking scores of hostages.

Bombs exploded and gun battles between terrorists and police took place across India's financial capital.

The targets included the city's best hotels, busy railway stations, police headquarters and cinemas.

The BBC quoted local media as reporting that the attackers were singling out British and American passport holders.

Amid chaotic scenes on Mumbai's streets terrorists reportedly stole several cars including a police vehicle and drove through the streets firing shots at random.

A petrol station was blown up, shots were fired outside a hospital and there were reports of a bomb in the vicinity of the airport.

At leat two terrorists were shot dead by police after a high-speed police chase and about 10 suspects had reportedly been detained.

Eighty dead

Reuters said at least 80 people were killed in the attacks that began late Wednesday and continued into Thursday morning.

The Times of India reported at least 900 people were injured.

At least 20 Australians have been caught up in the chaos and two Australians were injured, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

An unknown groupt, Deccan Mujahideen, sent an email to the media claiming responsibility for the attacks.

The BBC reported that Western hostages were taken in the Taj hotel and the Oberoi, two prominent luxury hotels in the city centre, after gunmen opened fire.

The exact number of hostages was not known but one senior official estimated that 50-60 people were being detained in the Taj.

An unnamed British businessman said he was held hostage with about 15 people at the Oberoi by two heavily armed young men dressed in T-shirts and jeans.

"They took us up the elevator; there was lot of smoke and fire and guns," he told a local TV station. "Me and my friend escaped down the fire exit."

Three foreigners were reportedly being held hostage inside Mumbai's Trident Hotel, including one Belgian and one Indonesian.

The JW Marriot Hotel in the Mumbai district of Juhu has also been cordoned off by police.

Local media says gunfire has also been reported at that hotel, which is about 20 kilometres from the area where the Taj and Oberoi hotels are.

Australians caught up in attacks

At least 20 Australians were in the Oberoi Hotel at the time of the attack, all of them members of a NSW trade delegation organised by the Department of State and Regional Development.

A DFAT spokesman said the Australian Government was trying to confirm the safety and welfare of all Australians who may have been caught up in the attacks.

The Department has contacted the families of the two injured Australians and is providing consular assistance in Mumbai, he said.

"Mumbai police have stated that the attacks are terror related," he said.

"The Australian Government unreservedly condemns these atrocious attacks on innocent people."

A NSW department spokeswoman said the Australian trade delegation, including representatives of 18 businesses plus two departmental staff, had been told to evacuate the Oberei.

All were believed to be unharmed, she said.

Mumbai terror strike: Death toll climbs to 101

MUMBAI - As the first sound of gunfire and explosions rattled the lobby below, people ducked under tables at luxury five-star hotels while staff members locked restaurant doors.

Not far away, Army commandos in battle-ready camouflage uniforms battled attackers in black shirts and jeans carrying shoulder bags filled with ammunition at Mumbai's main railway station, which was filled with commuters waiting to catch trains.

Twelve hours after the first shots were fired at about 10pm local time, the terror attacks continued inside two of the city's best-known and most opulent hotels where terrorists still held hostages.

The toll after teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a restaurant, a crowded train station and a Jewish group's headquarters in India's financial capital stood at 101 people.

The attackers took Westerners hostage and left parts of the city under siege. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.

Police and gunmen were exchanging occasional gunfire at two luxury hotels and dozens of people were believed held hostage or trapped in buildings. Pradeep Indulkar, a senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry, said 287 were injured.

Officials said at least eight militants had also been killed since the overnight attacks that targeted at least 10 separate sites.

Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen who was dining at the Oberoi, told Sky News television that a gunman ushered 30 to 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and, speaking in Hindi or Urdu, ordered everyone to put up their hands.

"They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said: 'Where are you from?' and he said he's from Italy and they said 'fine' and they left him alone. And I thought: 'Fine, they're going to shoot me if they ask me anything - and thank God they didn't," he said.

Chamberlain said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk up stairs, but he thought much of the group was being held hostage.

"We were at dinner when we heard shots fired. There was gunfire and explosions. We stayed on the floor, many were lying under tables, under furniture, and the hotel staff told us to be quiet," said Cheryl Robinson, a British tourist who was trapped inside Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel with two friends. "The hotel staff were stupendous. They locked the doors and warned us to sit tight."

She said restaurants and rooms were flooded with water after a pipe burst in the chaos of the gunshots and blasts. "We lay down in the water. We could hear the sound of people running outside. It was terrifying."

Seven long hours later, a barefoot Robinson shivered as she stood outside the burning but still majestic stone-columned hotel that belched out black smoke from shattered windows. Soldiers and firefighters helped her and several others to climb down ladders and escape the blazing edifice as the firing continued inside.

At the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, Nasim Inam's hands shook as he spoke of seeing commuters mowed down.

Four young men carrying big guns and wearing black T-shirts and blue jeans rushed in, Inam said. "They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground."

Sobbing and shaking his head, he said the attackers were 25 years old at the most.

"They were so young. They were young boys. I was standing behind. I was just behind. If they had turned around, it would have been me."

Just a few kilometres away, eyewitnesses said gunmen hijacked a police van then opened fire on crowds that had collected near two hospitals close to the police headquarters.

"We felt the ground shake and heard the explosions," said Manish Tripathi, at a police cordon near one of the hospitals. "We heard a car speed up behind us, it was a police van, but the men inside were firing at us."

He said in seconds people around him were shot at. "Men were screaming that they had lost their fingers. There was blood all over," said Tripathi who escaped unhurt. "Some were shot in the leg, some on the shoulder or hand. I feel they are still screaming."

Inside the two Mumbai hotels and the railway station, soldiers took over from the khaki-uniformed police who moved out to patrol the streets and warned residents to stay indoors.

Opposite the multistorey Oberoi hotel, a tense college student, Preet Desai, paced on a deserted promenade as dawn broke. He said a friend's father was inside the hotel at a business meeting when shots were fired.

"My friend is shattered. His dad is not answering his cell. What do we do?" said Desai.

Gunmen seized the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, the New York-based group said. Indian commandos surrounded the building, and media reports said gunfire was heard from the building.

Police loudspeakers declared a curfew around Mumbai's landmark Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building as gunshots rang out, apparently the beginning of an assault on gunmen who had taken hostages in the hotel.

Ambulances were seen driving up to the entrance to the hotel. Soldiers outside the hotel said forces were moving slowly, from room to room, looking for gunmen and traps.

A series of explosions had rocked the Taj Mahal just after midnight local time. Screams were heard and black smoke billowed from the century-old edifice. Firefighters sprayed water at the blaze and plucked people from balconies with extension ladders. Hours later, the fire was still burning.

At the upmarket Oberoi hotel soldiers could be seen on the roof of nearby buildings. A banner hung out of one window read "save us". No one could be seen inside.

- AP

India death toll reaches 119
Jewish center stormed

By Associated Press

MUMBAI, India - Security forces today assaulted a Jewish center where Muslim militants were believed holed up with hostages today, with black-clad commandos dropping from an Indian helicopter as sharpshooters opened fire on the five-story building.

The attack came as commandos also scoured two luxury hotels room-by-room for survivors and holed-up militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across India’s financial center by suspected Muslim militants left at least 119 people dead.

The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shellshocked, but the sporadic gunfire and explosions at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels dwindled overnight.

At the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, a commando assault began shortly after dawn after a tense night in which six trucks of soldiers had been brought in to surround the building.

Snipers stationed in buildings opposite the center began the attack, with sustained fire on the building as at least nine commandos lowered themselves by rope onto the roof from a circling Indian air force helicopter.

Security forces searched the rooms at the hotels - two of the top gathering spots for the Mumbai elite - but there were no gunbattles or blasts. Commandos had spent much of yesterday bringing out hostages, trapped guests and corpses while firefighters battled flames that had erupted. The fires were out by today.

State officials said 119 people had died and 288 were injured in the attacks.

The gunmen were well-prepared, even carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during the fight. Their main targets appeared to be Americans, Britons and Jews, though most of the dead seemed to be Indians and foreign tourists caught in the random gunfire.

The gunmen - some of whom strode casually in khakis and T-shirts - clearly came ready for a siege.

“They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared,” said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda.

Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal hotel, said they appeared to have scouted their targets in advance.

“They seem to know their way around the back office, the kitchen. There has been a considerable amount of detailed planning,” he told a news conference.

Police declare Mumbai siege over

Indian officials have said the siege at Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel is over, after the last few militants were killed.

Police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said the hotel was now under their control. "All combat operations are over. All the terrorists have been killed."
Commandos began a new assault early on Saturday as fighting that has claimed at least 195 lives entered a third day.
Commando chief JK Dutt told media three militants had been killed but his men still had to check all the hotel rooms.
Mr Dutt, head of the elite National Security Guards commando force, said a body seen thrown out of a window of the landmark hotel was that of one of the militants, Reuters reports.
Speaking to media outside the hotel, he appealed for any guests still hiding in the building to make their presence known and warned that small explosions might be heard as the clearing operation continued.

On Friday, almost 100 people were rescued from a second hotel, and six bodies were found at a Jewish centre.
India's foreign minister has said "elements with links to Pakistan" were involved in the attacks on Mumbai.
However, his Pakistani counterpart has urged India not to bring politics into the issue, saying "we should join hands to defeat the enemy".

'Ultimate sacrifice'
Extremely heavy and sustained gunfire was heard inside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel shortly before 0730 (0200 GMT) on Saturday, as soldiers rushed into the lobby in a bid to flush out the remaining few gunmen.
Firefighters then worked to contain fierce flames and thick smoke that billowed from the building's lower floors.

The BBC's Mark Dummett at the scene says the search is now on for any surviving militants who may be hiding in the hotel's 560-odd rooms, but security officials say they think the operation is now over.
All eyes will now be on India's investigation of the attacks, our correspondent says, with questions already being asked about the failure of its intelligence agencies to uncover the plans.
The commandos suspect that the militants knew the hotel well because they were very mobile during the course of the siege, he says, making it extremely difficult for security forces to secure an area in order to evacuate guests.
Indian media have reported that one of the militants worked as a chef for 10 months at the hotel.
Some have described this as India's 9/11, our correspondent adds, and people in India now want answers as to who is responsible.
Blasts had rung out for most of Friday after truckloads of commandos entered the premises.
A journalist and bystander outside the hotel were taken to hospital after being hit by shrapnel.
Indian commandos who managed to enter other parts of the Taj say they found at least 30 bodies in one hall.
Fighting appears to have ended at the other key flashpoints in Mumbai, chief among them the Oberoi-Trident hotel - where nearly 100 people were rescued and 24 bodies were found earlier on Friday.
But at Nariman House, the Mumbai base of Chabad-Lubavitch, a New York-based orthodox Jewish organisation, the news was grim.

BOMB ATTACKS IN INDIA IN 2008
30 October: Explosions kill at least 64 in north-eastern Assam
30 September: Blasts in western India kill at least seven
27 September: Bomb blasts kills one in Delhi
13 September: Five bomb blasts kill 18 in Delhi
26 July: At least 22 small bombs kill 49 in Ahmedabad
25 July: Seven bombs go off in Bangalore killing two people
13 May: Seven bombs hit markets and crowded streets in Jaipur killing 63

The organisation confirmed that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, had been killed alongside his wife, Rivka. Their two-year-old son survived.
The Holtzbergs had moved to India in 2003 from New York to run the Mumbai branch of the outreach organisation, which offers services and hospitality to Jewish travellers.
The bodies were removed from the building early on Saturday.
The stand-offs began late on Wednesday when gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades opened fire indiscriminately on crowds at a major railway station, the two hotels, the Jewish centre, a hospital and a cafe frequented by foreigners.
Indian media have reported that at least 154 people have been killed since Wednesday, with around 370 injured, the vast majority Indian citizens.
An Indian official said the toll could rise much higher.
At least 18 foreigners are known to have died, including victims from Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy and Singapore. One Briton, Andreas Liveras, has been killed.
A claim of responsibility for this week's attacks - the worst in India's commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006 - has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.
However, most intelligence officials are keeping an open mind as the attacks have thrown up conflicting clues, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.