195 dead after Mumbai terror

After the final siege ended, adoring crowds surrounded six buses near the hotel carrying weary, unshaven commandos, shaking their hands and giving them flowers.

Officials said they believe just 10 well-prepared gunmen were behind the attacks that brought the city of 18 million to its knees for three days.

"Nine were killed and one was captured," Maharshta state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters. "We are interrogating him." Another official said the captured attacker is Pakistani and the gunmen were constantly in touch with a foreign country.

With the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India's history, authorities were searching for any remaining victims hiding in their hotel rooms and began to shift their focus to who was behind the attacks, which killed 18 foreigners including one Briton. At least 20 Indian soldiers and police were also among the dead.

About 300 people were wounded in the violence that started when heavily armed assailants attacked 10 sites across the city on Wednesday night.

Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn as Indian forces ended the siege there in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish centre and found at least eight hostages dead.

The death toll includes Americans, Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

Mr Deshmukh said the attackers arrived by sea. The Indian navy said it was investigating whether a trawler found drifting off the coast of Mumbai, with a bound corpse on board, was used in the attack.

A previously group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in southern India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials pointed the finger at neighbouring Pakistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted his country was not involved.