My contact has a 25-year-old daughter, who has three girlfriends in bed with her when I arrive, all watching the TV news. They were afraid to return to their homes in south Mumbai last night. They are far from danger but on the verge of tears. India's new 24-hour cable news channels are accompanying every bulletin with melodramatic music and even more melodramatic newsreading. Although the attacks began more than 36 hours ago, at this point little is known about what is going on, how many hostages there are, if the terrorists have any demands, how many people have been killed or hurt. The newsreaders say that the Oberoi has been liberated by NSG commandos.

I go to the Gateway of India, walking past a police barrier keeping out all vehicles. It's only when I get to a hundred yards from the lobby of the Taj that I have to show a press pass. Here there are scores of cameras set up, satellite trucks and policemen walking around. On a grass verge, a platoon of blue-uniformed troops of the Rapid Action Force is lying down, some pointing rifles at the hotel, others eating. Army troops in green crouch near fire engines. The fires I saw last night seem to be out but there are black scorch marks up one side of the hotel. Close to the lobby, plain-clothes policemen in bullet-proof vests are hiding behind a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The press line is astonishingly close to the hotel. No one is wearing a flak vest.

Moments after I arrive, firing erupts and people throw themselves to the ground. Some hide behind cars or the green netting around a nearby lawn. A grenade goes off with a loud bang. The firing seems to be coming from inside the hotel but it's hard to tell in what direction it's going. Just as quickly, it stops. Everyone in the press line, plus various hangers-on and onlookers behind them, gets up and starts wandering around and chatting. An ITN cameraman drily remarks that people here seem to think that bullets don't travel more than a hundred yards or fly low to the ground. Even the police seem to think that a car door will protect them from an AK-47 round - a dangerous delusion. By the end of the day, two journalists will be wounded here, one of them a woman from Agence France Presse.

The whole atmosphere is strangely casual, even as gunfire erupts repeatedly. To my surprise, not only is there no proper perimeter around the hotel, there also isn't a proper police cordon to prevent any terrorists escaping by one of the huge hotel's many exits. At this point, there are no helicopters overhead, and no snipers visible up on the Gateway or in the modern tower that adjoins the old Taj building. I assume that there must be some kind of command post inside to coordinate the various different security forces here: the city police, the state reserve police, the regular army and the NSG commandos.