MUMBAI - FOR 60 hours, Mumbai residents watched aghast as gunmen opened fire in a station and hospital, seizing two top hotels and a Jewish centre in a coordinated assault that left at least 172 people dead.

But soon after an attack described by many in the media here as 'India's 9/11', signs of the megalopolis's resilience had already swung into view.

Five hours after trains stopped running at the Gothic central station, where some of the first shots were fired on Wednesday night killing scores of commuters, services resumed even as gunfire resounded in other parts of the city.

Next door to the Taj Mahal hotel, which was freed from the grip of militants on Saturday morning bringing an end to the standoff, the swanky Indigo restaurant reopened for dinner that day.

'The restaurant decided to put its best foot forward and show we weren't cowed down,' said Indigo manager Vijay Prakash, a British national from Sheffield who made Mumbai his home about two years ago.

On Sunday, the 137-year-old Leopold cafe, a popular spot with tourists, opened its doors at noon.

'We will prove to terrorists by opening that we have won, you have not won,' said Mr Farzad Jehani, who owns the cafe with his brother.

Mumbai has long grappled with terror attacks - with serial bombings on the city's commuter rail that killed over 180 in 2006 and multiple blasts in 1993 that killed some 250 - and gone back to its daily struggles.

But this time, many of the city's richest - those usually most protected from the ills of India - showed up on the lists of the dead.

'It's always been poor people' who were killed, said Mr Kalpana Sharma, a journalist and author of the book 'Rediscovering Dharavi', on the famous Mumbai slum a short train ride but a world away from south Mumbai.

'This is the first time people from the highest class have realised what it means to be facing terror of this kind.'

From millionaires to steel tycoons, foreign tourists to socialites, the attacks on Mumbai this time hit at a rare part of the city that sometimes appears more connected to the rest of world than it is to the rest of India.

In south Mumbai, British-era Gothic architecture, new contemporary art galleries, chic restaurants and smart shops draw a crowd that perhaps a decade or two ago would not have dreamt of setting foot in this city.

'It is a very vibrant city. It is a melting pot - like New York or London,' said Indigo's Prakash.

In India's urban rivalry, the capital Delhi is to Washington what Mumbai is to New York and Los Angeles rolled into one - more favoured by tourists, businessmen and movie stars of the city's Bollywood industry.

Like Mr Prakash, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka - who were born in Israel but lived in Brooklyn before moving to India - had temporarily made the city their home.

The couple, who ran the city's ultra-orthodox Jewish centre that was popular among Israeli tourists, were among the almost 30 foreign nationals killed in the attacks.

On Sunday evening, hundreds of people thronged the boardwalk in the south of the city to light candles for the dead and take pictures of the shattered glass of one of the seized hotels towering over Marine Drive.

Alongside, decorated horse-drawn carriages waited hopefully for passengers.

A few blocks away, a makeshift amusement park for children was up, with mini ferris wheels and a bouncy castle.

In the slum Dharavi, most people said they rarely venture to south Mumbai - but still said they felt frightened.

'This time they seized a hotel. What if they seize a school another time?' said Mr Sameer Raju, 37, a roadside vegetable seller.

Others in a Muslim area of the slum also worried about being persecuted after the attacks.

'When violence happens people sometimes forget to distinguish between terrorists and good people,' said Ms Shakira Shaikh Akabar, who fretted about how she would feed her four children as she and her husband refrained from going to work for a few days to see if calm prevailed.

But Ms Shobha De, a novelist, socialite and spokesman of sorts for India's swish set, said she had no doubt south Mumbai - and the city - would be back to normal in a few days.

'Perhaps foreign tourists will stay away for the next couple of weeks. But locals are flocking back for cold beers, spicy kebabs and even spicier conversation,' said Ms De.

'I drove around South Mumbai last night, just hours after the ordeal officially ended. It was business as usual - somewhat scaled down, but business nevertheless.' -- AFP