London -- The British government is investigating reports that British citizens of Pakistani origin could have been among the terrorists who attacked Mumbai, officials said on Friday.

British security services had asked their counterparts in India for information on the reports, the BBC said, citing security sources.

However, so far "no hard evidence" has materialized on the involvement of British terrorists.

Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to comment on the claims, saying he would discuss the matter on Friday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I would not want to be drawn into early conclusions about this," Brown said on Sky News. "But obviously when you have terrorists operating in one country they may be getting support from another country -- and it is very important that we strengthen the cooperation between India and Britain in dealing with these instances of terrorist attack," Brown added.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Friday he had "no information" about the reports "at the moment."

He said Britain was working "very, very closely with the Indians," but added that it was too soon to determine the nationalities of the terrorists.

"Obviously, the priority of Indian authorities is to complete this operation," said Miliband in an interview with Sky News. “They can then start identifying who are the terrorists, what is their background."

Speculation about the possible involvement of British citizens in the attacks was also fuelled by remarks attributed to Erika Mann, a German member of the European Parliament, who was caught up in the attacks during a visit of an EU delegation to Mumbai.

According to a press release published by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Mann spoke of "unconfirmed reports" that British citizens were involved.

"The attacks appear to have a European dimension," Mann said. "We have heard from journalists and other people we were with that English citizens took part in the attacks and were killed in the hotel."

The government has confirmed that a British businessman died in the attacks and at least seven Britons were injured.


DPA/Expatica