Indian commandos fought room to room battles to save people trapped inside two luxury hotels after coordinated attacks by gunmen across Mumbai that the Prime Minister blamed on a militant group outside the country.
Police said 119 people were killed and 315 wounded when gunmen - at least some of whom arrived by sea - fanned out across the commercial capital to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen.
With the drama still unfolding, the final death toll could be higher.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed militant groups based in India's neighbours, usually meaning Pakistan, raising fears of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," he said in a televised address.
"We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts."
Helicopters buzzed overhead and crowds cheered as the commandos, their faces blackened, moved into the Trident-Oberoi, where 20 to 30 people were thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others were trapped in their rooms.
Huge flames billowed from an upper floor.
Earlier, explosions rattled the nearby Taj Hotel, a 105-year-old city landmark on the waterfront, as the troops flushed out the last of the militants there. Fire and smoke plumed from an open window.
"The commandos are in control," Dipak Dutta told NDTV news after being rescued. As the troops escorted him through the corridors, they told him not to look down at any of the bodies.
"A lot of chef trainees were massacred in the kitchen."
At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national were killed.
No Maltese involved
No Maltese people were caught in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry said yesterday.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is urging people to refrain from travelling to the city until further notice.
Anyone there requiring immediate assistance should phone the High Commission in New Delhi on 00 9111 2649 4961 or the Protocol and Consular Directorate on 2204 2357.