AP Video: Mumbai Under Siege

Seen on: YouTube

There has been widespread international condemnation of the series of shootings across the Indian city of Mumbai in which more than 100 people have been killed.

AlJazeera Video: Mumbai Terror Attacks

Seen on: YouTube

More than 100 people are dead after a series of attacks across Mumbai, India's financial capital. Parts of the city are still under siege after the attackers stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a hospital.

Image Day - Taj Mahal Hotel

Fire engulfs a part of the Taj Mahal Hotel as firemen try to douse it in Mumbai, India. Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in co-ordinated attacks across India's financial capital, killing at least 78 people.

> Image by AP

AP Video: Mumbai Terror Attacks

Seen on: YouTube

Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital Wednesday night, killing at least 78 people and taking Westerners hostage.

Links: Mumbai Terror Attacks

Related links on the appalling terror attacks in Mumbai:

• Twitter
  The death toll from the terrorists attack in Mumbai has risen to at least 87; 900 reported injured; attack still unfolding at locations.


• In pictures: Mumbai attacks
  Gunmen have launched co-ordinated attacks at several sites in the Indian city of Mumbai, killing scores. Police told people to stay inside.


• India: Terror attacks continue in Mumbai
  In what appears to be a surreal sense of reality, television channels are airing footage from various places in Southern Mumbai.


• Scores killed in Mumbai attacks
  "The terrorists have used automatic weapons and in some places grenades have been lobbed. The encounters are still going on and we are trying to overpower them," A.N. Roy, a senior police officer, said.


• Mumbai gunmen kill 80, Western hostages taken
  "The terrorists are throwing grenades at us from the rooftop of the Taj and trying to stop us," Ashok Patil, a police inspector told Reuters.

Latest: Mumbai Terror Attacks

Shivnath Thukral reports for NDTV that fire is still being exchanged between the security forces and terrorists inside the historic Taj Hotel.

According to NDTV reports, three terrorists have been killed, while a number of gunmen remain at large inside the hotel compounds. Indian security forces are still struggling to bring the situation in control and authorities are advising people to stay away from the scene of the attacks, which include prominent city locations like the Trident Hotel.

Times Video: Mumbai Terror Strikes

Seen on: YouTube

Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing at least 80 people and injuring 200.

Streets of Mumbai - Part two

Seen on: YouTube

In a new series for Al Jazeera, Divya Gopalan attempts to understand the real Mumbai by taking a culinary journey through its vibrant streets.

> Streets of Mumbai - Part one

Streets of Mumbai - Part one

Seen on: YouTube

In a new series for Al Jazeera, Divya Gopalan attempts to understand the real Mumbai by taking a culinary journey through its vibrant streets.

> Streets of Mumbai - Part two

Image Day - Desi Model

A model displays the new spring-summer collection from French fashion retailer 'Galeries Lafayette' during a French-Festival in Mumbai, India.

> Reuters Pictures

Image Day - Mumbai Suburban Railway

Passengers travel in a busy suburban train in Mumbai, India's financial capital.

Indian Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a cut in passenger fares, during the 2008 budget presentation for one of the world's largest networks.

> Reuters Pictures

The Shiv-Sena paradox

Seen on: YouTube

A slum in Kalva near Thane is a paradox. It houses 12,000 families whose inhabitants are mostly from small towns of Uttar Pradesh. In the last decade, the slum has grown, and Shiv-Sena has not missed this opportunity to exploit lives.

Image Day - Reliance Power

Billboard advertising Reliance Power, at the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Reliance Power, which last month made India's largest-ever IPO, fell more than 17% on debut, becoming the latest casualty of market turmoil worldwide.

> Reuters Pictures

Image Day - Sanjay Dutt's Manyata

Sanjay Dutt poses with his wife Manyata after a brief ceremony in Mumbai.

> Reuters Pictures

Image Day - Revitalizing Mumbai

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party workers attack a man, targeting people leaving a Samajwadi-Party (SP) rally in Mumbai.

India's biggest film star Amitabh Bachchan is at the centre of violent regional rivalries in the commercial hub of Mumbai, where the MNS, a local political party, is leading a campaign against millions of migrants who control the city's economy.

Party workers have intimidated-migrants, damaged vehicles and beaten up taxi drivers, most of whom are from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Picture taken February 3, 2008.

> Reuters Pictures

French film festival in Mumbai

There was much in store for film fans at the French film festival in Mumbai.

Mumbai Living

The residents of Dharavi, allegedly Asia's biggest slum, are thriving in hardship .With maybe a million residents, crammed into a square mile of low-rise wood, concrete and rusted iron, Dharavi is a squeeze.

As the sparrows stir, so do the neighbours. Parapa, a semi-skilled electrician, lived with his parents, two brothers, their wives and two children in a room of 48 square feet. A month ago, explained Parapa, a strapping, beaming, Chaucerian fellow, he chased one of his brothers and a wife from the hutment in a violent, drunken rage. They fled back to a remote village in southern Karnataka.

Parapa then fixed a man-sized plank to the hutment wall, so that while his father and brother made love to their wives below, he could stay chastely on the shelf.

As Bombay boomed, on the back of its port and textile mills, poor peasants flowed in from the land. During periodic famines—including one in Bengal in 1943 that killed 3m people—they came in spate.

With this history, Dharavi's population is diverse. Tamils, Andhras, Assamese, Biharis, Bengalis and local Maharatis; all India's peoples are here. Perhaps a little over half belong to India's poorest groups: dalits and Muslims.

During a four-day stay in Dharavi, as the guest of Shashi and his friends, your correspondent heard many such tales: of hard times, facing up and getting by.

The narrators were sometimes bitter or suspicious, but mostly friendly, almost invariably courteous, and occasionally, like Parapa, very funny.

From The Economist, A flourishing slum, Dec 19th 2007

Mumbai Maglev

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Wednesday December 19, 2007
The Guardian

India's financial capital, Mumbai, is considering a £3.75bn futuristic magnetic levitation high-speed train network as a part of a radical overhaul of the infrastructure.

Mumbai's railways were boycotted only last week by thousands of commuters because of the "deadly" overcrowding. Passenger groups say that on average every square metre of railway carriage accommodates 17 people on each trip.

The Maharashtra state government wants up to six maglev routes, of between 16 to 30 miles, linking the port city to the suburbs.

The role model appears to be Shanghai's maglev train.

Sanjay Dutt: Guilty or Not?

Film star Sanjay Dutt's trial and speculation over whether he would walk free from court have been uppermost in people's minds in Mumbai (Bombay) for weeks. Sanjay Dutt is the most high-profile defendant in the trial yet.

Proceedings have gripped Bollywood, the world's most prolific film industry.

He was convicted of possessing illegal firearms in the 1993 Mumbai attacks.

Related Links: In pictures: Sanjay Dutt

Correspondents say the connections between the Mumbai film industry and the criminal underworld in the city have long been one of Bollywood's secrets.

Information via BBC