Mumbai Death Toll Tops 200

At least 200 people were killed in the bombings that ripped through packed commuter trains in Mumbai, a senior official said today.

The number of dead in the bombings has risen steadily since the attacks yesterday evening, as rescue efforts uncover more bodies and some of the seriously wounded die from their injuries in hospital.

R Patil, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, told the state assembly: "Two hundred bodies have been found".

Officials say more than 700 people were also injured in the seven explosions on trains and at station platforms in India's financial hub.

A huge police investigation is ongoing to try and catch the bombers and a number of raids have been made in Mumbai and the wider state. Police spoke this morning of having a number of "leads".

Today, much of the city's train service has resumed, and the trains were busy, especially in the crowded, cheaper carriages.

However, more people than usual were using buses and cars. Around 6 million people use the trains every day in the city.

Brijesh Ojha, a 35-year-old security guard, was back today at dawn at Bandra station, one of the sites of yesterday's blasts, getting ready to board a train that he had vowed never to ride again hours earlier.

"Our trust has been shattered, we had always thought trains were safe," said Mr Ojha, who, along with thousands of others, spent last night pulling bloodied bodies from the twisted wreckage.

"But what can we do - in this city, trains are the lifeline," he added, the Associated Press reported.

Some passengers praised the spirit of the residents of the city of 16 million in a time of crisis.

Deepa Kumar, who commutes more than an hour each way to her office in the city centre, said people from all walks of life - from the city's wealthy elite to its poor shanty dwellers - reached out to help each other.

"Complete strangers were carrying the injured in their cars, not minding that their fancy leather car seats were getting bloodied," she said. "It's at times like this that I believe this city shows it has a heart."

Security sources in India have said the synchronised bombings were likely to have been carried out by militants connected to one or more of the dozens of armed Kashmiri separatist groups.

PS Pasricha, the director general of police for Maharashtra state, said: "It is difficult to say definitely as this stage, but Lashkar-e-Taiba can be involved going by the style of attack."

A spokesman purporting to be from Lashkar-e-Taiba telephoned newspaper offices in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, and denied the group was involved. The caller condemned the attacks, describing them as "inhuman and barbaric acts".

A spokesman from a second militant group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, also denied involvement. It was unclear how seriously security forces would take the denials.

In other developments, India called on Pakistan to dismantle "the infrastructure of terrorism," but made no direct accusation at its nuclear rival.

The statement by the foreign ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, was made in response to remarks by Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri, suggesting the bombings were the result of the countries' dispute over Kashmir.

"We find it appalling that the [foreign minister] ... should seek to link this blatant and inhuman act of terrorism against men women and children to the so-called lack of resolution of dispute between India and Pakistan," said Mr Sarna.

Although a peace process has improved relations between India and Pakistan over the past two years, tensions remain, largely over the disputed Himalayan region. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both countries claim the region in full.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed for several major attacks in India in recent years, including bomb blasts in New Delhi in October last year which killed more than 60 people. The blasts in Mumbai came hours after suspected Islamist militants killed eight people, seven of them tourists, in five grenade attacks in Srinagar.

The nuclear rivals have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory where more than 45,000 people have been killed in the Muslim separatist revolt since 1989.