Eight people seen outside the besieged Chabad House in Mumbai Thursday night were local Indians from a home in the same compound, and not Jewish or Israeli hostages from the Chabad House, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Thursday night, refuting media reports that the Chabad House hostages had been freed.

The commando raid was continuing outside the Chabad House with the remaining members of the five families taken hostage still being held.

Israel Radio reported that Indian forces were searching for other gunmen inside the building but that not a single a shot has been fired in the last hours of the building's takeover by Indian security forces.