Live updates on Mumbai from the BBC - effectively a reporters' blog

[muriel_volestrangler]

Probably worth remembering that it's the first impressions of things, so a few premature claims may get in there. Times are in GMT - here's the latest at the time of posting:

1525 US President-elect Barack Obama says the US must strengthen ties with India and other nations to "root out and destroy terrorist networks". His national security spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson, says Mr Obama "strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the people of India."

1517 The BBC's Mark Dummet says: Contrary to reports there still appear to be people inside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. I saw what I think was a woman… desperately trying to open up the window of her room and then giving up in frustration. There are people still in the hotel but we don't know how many and what condition they're in.

Extraordinarily, Mumbai is entering a second night of crisis and two top hotels are burning. In the last few seconds a lot of gunfire has been heard coming from the old, historic heart of the hotel. Clearly, security forces are still battling with the gunmen.

1504 SS Mukherjee, the vice-chairman of Oberoi Hotels, tells India's NDTV that five or six of his staff members have been killed during the siege, and that around 200 people are still trapped inside. "We believe that not less than 100 people are at the Oberoi side and not less than 100 people inside the Trident side," he says. Mr Mukherjee estimates that last night's occupancy at the hotel had been between 375 and 385 guests. He says the gunmen "have not gone down (to) the basement and have only gone to the upper floors".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7752003.stm