Taj Mahal hotel in Delhi intensifies security

NEW DELHI: As its Mumbai branch tackled armed gunmen, blasts and a hostage situation, security at the Taj Mahal hotel here was also intensified Thursday with all visitors being screened and frisked.

No visitor was allowed to go up to the rooms without first being cleared by the guest. Bags were being checked as the hotel came under a security blanket.

"I am really scared," said Michelle, who had come from Singapore to the capital to attend a wedding.

In what is Mumbai's worst terror attack, at least 87 people, including a foreign tourist and four top police officers, were killed and over 250 injured when terrorists struck in a series of planned and synchronised gunfire and bomb attacks in the heart of India's financial capital late Wednesday.

Terrorists were reported to be holding tourists and other guests hostage in two five-star hotels, the Taj Intercontinental and the Oberoi Trident, facing the waterfront across the Arabian Sea close to the city's most important landmark, the Gateway of India.