Westerners Hostage in Mumbai Chaos

The gunmen who have already killed 80 in Mumbai are holed up with at least 15 hostages, including seven foreigners, inside the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Press Trust of India reports. The latest reports put the count of injured above 900. Among the dead are the chief of a police anti-terror squad, and Mumbai’s additional police commissioner.

A previously unknown organization called the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility, Reuters reports. The attackers are men in their early 20s, said a hostage who managed to escape. “The two young boys came to the restaurant and took us upstairs. We were taken to the 18th floor from where we escaped.” The gunmen asked who in the hotel had American and British passports, preferring to take foreigners hostage. (More Mumbai stories.)