The terrorists who held Mumbai at siege from Wednesday were out to create an ‘international incident with worldwide ramifications’ and had enough ammunition and explosives to kill 5,000 people, Mumbai Police officials said on Saturday.

According to the police, the death toll till noon on Saturday included 18 foreigners of Israeli, German, American, British, Japanese, Canadian, Phillipino, Italian, Omani and Chinese nationalities, while 22 other foreigners were injured.

The police confirmed that the terrorists had specifically targeted Nariman House at Colaba Market as it housed a synagogue and a Jewish family.

“It is obvious that they chose Nariman House since they knew a Jewish family lived there. Their task was to create an international incident with global ramifications. They had enough explosives and ammunition to kill 5,000 people,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria.

“We did not anticipate the magnitude of the terror attacks, and a period of half-an-hour within which we heard of the deaths of Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar as well injuries to Sadanand Date, were horrible. However, neither did the terrorists expect that the police would persistently chase them and cut them off at Girgaum Chowpatty,” said Maria.

The police have so far recovered 10 AK-56 assault rifles, ten 9 mm pistols, two explosive devices of 8 kgs which have been defused and sent for forensic analysis, and a huge cache of grenades. A satellite communication and global positioning system, along with bogus Indian student identification cards have been recovered from the two terrorists intercepted at Girgaum Chowpatty.

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