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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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India terror begins with corpses on train platform
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-30 14:46 Overnight Friday, Taj Mahal Fighting continues at the seaside hotel. Authorities say one, perhaps two, gunmen are still inside. Explosions and gunfire ring out intermittently, intensifying at dawn.
Fire, once again, streams out through broken windows, lapping at the stone sides of the building. Clouds of black smoke rise high above the Arabian Sea. Outside, dozens of reporters crouch in the seaside plaza in front of the Taj, and sometimes a half-dozen TV reporters can be heard at once providing breathless commentaries about the situation. Few bother to take cover. 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Taj Mahal. After so much destruction it ends quietly. There is no announcement of victory. One minute, there are explosions inside, and a few minutes later a man walks casually out into the plaza out front, a place where soldiers in body armor had been sprinting in fear, and waves for firefighters to come put out the remaining blazes.
The Taj Mahal siege is declared over, ending three days of terror. It has been 60 hours since the first pair of gunmen walked into the train station. Outside, bits of burned debris fill the plaza. Strings of white bed sheets, tied together, hang from the windows, reminders of those who escaped. Almost a dozen buses are parked nearby, just a few feet from the Arabian Sea. They are filled with soldiers and commandos finally getting a break.
Hundreds of people push their way toward the buses, pressing flowers into their hands.
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