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Page last updated at 11:56 GMT, Thursday, 26 November 2009

Mumbai attacks: Key sites

On the night of 26 November 2008 10 gunmen launched attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay). Two luxury hotels and other major landmarks were targeted - fighting with security forces raged over three days. Nine gunmen were killed, one was arrested. The attacks began within minutes of each other at about 2120 local time, police logs show.

Click on the map to find out about each location.

MUMBAI ATTACKS

Chabad Lubavitch CentreChhatrapati Shivaji TerminusCama HospitalOberoi HotelTaj MahalCafe Leopold

TAJ MAHAL HOTEL

The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was attacked at about 2120 on Wednesday 26 November. Some 450 people were staying there and a large fire was started.

The damage caused to the Taj Mahal hotel

Gunmen stormed the hotel as people sat down for dinner, opening fire indiscriminately.

Hundreds of people hid for hours as gunmen fought special commandos. It is thought four gunmen attacked the hotel, two of them having minutes earlier sprayed gunfire in nearby Cafe Leopold before joining the others.

A number of blazes broke out inside the hotel and flames billowed from the windows for days - right up to about 0730 local time on Saturday, the culmination of an hour of heavy gunfire and loud explosions, signalling the end of the operation.

It was the longest of the operations to clear the sites of gunmen, and involved more than 100 commandos.

The Taj Mahal is a 105-year-old city landmark at the heart of India's financial capital, popular with foreigners and tourists as well as the city's elite.

OBEROI-TRIDENT HOTEL
man looks out of window at the Oberoi

The Oberoi-Trident was seized on Wednesday night at the about same time as the Taj Majal. Two heavily armed gunmen rounded up diners, many of them tourists. At least 380 people were in the hotel at the time.

Indian commandos took control of the hotel at 1100 on Friday, freeing nearly 100 people, but 24 bodies were found shortly afterwards in the building.

Two militants, who had thrown hand grenades and exchanged gunfire, were killed, India's National Security Guard director-general said.

The hotel is very popular with business travellers and is located at Nariman Point, the city's main business district, near the Bombay Stock Exchange.

CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI TERMINUS

While the two hotels were being taken, two gunmen armed with automatic weapons stormed into the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, firing indiscriminately and throwing grenades.

India's NDTV has broadcast CCTV from inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the night of the attacks

Passengers waiting for long-distance trains scattered in panic while poorly armed police sought to repel the attackers in images caught on closed circuit television.

Ten people were reported killed and about 30 injured in these attacks.

The station, formerly Victoria Terminus, is one of the busiest railway stations in the country, handling up to three million passengers every day.

It took 10 years to build, starting in 1878, and is famous for its Victorian gothic architecture. It was named a Unesco world heritage site in 2004.

NARIMAN HOUSE

Reports that gunmen had seized control of the Nariman House business and residential complex on Wednesday night emerged shortly after the hotels had been stormed. Police surrounded the complex, which houses the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch outreach centre, and sent in commandos on Friday.

A helicopter drops commandos into the Nariman Jewish centre in Mumbai

They dropped smoke bombs to create confusion, and then several soldiers abseiled down ropes from a helicopter to secure the roof.

Indian security forces did not manage to secure the building until 1800 on Friday.

Several hours later police confirmed six people had been killed inside, including a rabbi and his wife.

The couple's two-year-old child had already been evacuated from the building along with his Indian nanny. Two gunmen were also killed.

The centre acts as a centre for prayer and study, attracting many Jewish and Israeli visitors every year.

CAFE LEOPOLD

The Cafe Leopold restaurant was the first target stormed after the gunmen - who arrived by sea - put ashore. Two attackers opened fire on diners - when they had finished they went to join the attack on the nearby Taj hotel.

Cafe Leopold
Witnesses described the 'mayhem'

The wife of one Briton injured in the cafe attack said: "It was mayhem. There were so many casualties. It was carnage."

Eyewitnesses suggest the attackers looked very young, "like boys".

Cafe Leopold is an old Mumbai institution, popular with foreign tourists and close to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

CAMA HOSPITAL

When the two gunmen had finished firing in CST station, they proceeded to the nearby Cama and Albless Hospital.

Witnesses and survivors said the attackers opened fire indiscriminately inside and outside the hospital.

The militants then hijacked a police van and opened fire from inside it while they drove, before one was killed and the other captured by the authorities.

Cama and Albless is a charitable hospital for women and children that was built in the late 1880s by a wealthy businessman.



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