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About 200 people are still trapped inside Trident (Oberoi) hotel in Mumbai and five to six staff members of the luxury hotel have been killed in the night-long terror siege.

"Altogether there would be around 200 people inside the Oberoi complex in Mumbai. We believe that not less than 100 people are at the Oberoi side and not less than 100 people inside the Trident side," Vice Chairman of Oberoi Hotels, S S Mukherjee, told NDTV.

The plush hotel is currently surrounded by army and National Security Guards commandos in order to launch an offensive to flush out the holed-up terrorists and rescue hostages.

"We have definite information that the casualty of our staff is about five-six," he said.

Putting last night's occupancy at the hotel around 375-385, Mukherjee said the terrorists "have not gone down the basement and have only gone to the upper floors".

The battle between terrorists and the security forces is likely to continue till mid-night or even till Friday as the terrorists are just unwilling to give up.

They fire at policemen and army commandos whenever they try to get close to them.

At 5 pm, one of the security personnel came under fire when he attempted to enter the Trident (formerly Oberoi) Hotel from the back door. The intensity of fire was so huge that people standing nearly 500 metres away from site panicked.

The commandos now have taken positions at the NCPA building opposite the hotel and are firing from there. They seem to be doing so to divert the attention of the terrorists and allow as many commandos to get inside the hotel. The strategy seems to be to try and make the terrorists expend their ammunition. Unfortunately, no one knows how well equipped the terrorists are and how much ammunition they have.

Another hindrance for commandos is the fact that they don't know how many terrorists are holed up in the hotel.

Meanwhile, guests trapped in the hotel just don't know what to do. If they come out they risk getting caught in the cross-fire. However some are taking the risk and coming out with the help of commandos who have entered the hotel. But since morning not more than a dozen people have came out.

One can see many guests waving from their windows to passersby and journalists who have camped since last night.


UPDATE: As I type this, twin blasts have been reported from behind the Oberoi hotel, and the entire backside of the hotel is engulfed in huge flames.