Fear Factor: German couple Heri and Becker Ingred at their Sudder Street hotel on Thursday. Picture by Aranya Sen

The Mumbai siege has left foreigners in Calcutta jittery about staying in five-star hotels.

German Heri Ingred, 55, and his wife Becker— who are visiting the city for the first time — had decided to stay in a star hotel but changed their minds at the last moment.

“It is so frightening to know that terrorists have targeted five-star hotels in Mumbai and taken so many people hostage. We had planned to stay in such a hotel in Calcutta but decided against it as my wife was scared,” Heri, who arrived on Thursday afternoon, told Metro.

The couple checked into Lytton Hotel on Sudder Street. “It’s terrible. We will never visit Mumbai. Most of the guests in our hotel look scared and are glued to television screens,” said Becker.

“As of now, Calcutta seems to be a safe city,” she added, as an afterthought.

Metro visited Sudder Street, a favourite with foreign visitors looking for budget hotels and guesthouses, and found most of them discussing the terror attacks in Mumbai and how foreigners were being singled out.

“Terrorists are striking all over the world at regular intervals and one never knows what or who their next target will be,” said 65-year-old Chris Wood Walker, a Londoner.

Chris returned to the city from Guwahati on Thursday morning with wife Liz and checked in at Fairlawn Hotel.

The couple had come to Calcutta a fortnight ago and left for a tour of the Sunderbans and Assam.

“Terrorists have also attacked London. No place is safe now. I think Calcutta is a nice place. Our son recommended this city and we are happy to be here,” said Liz, a retired doctor.

“There was extra security cover at Guwahati airport and policemen were all over the place. But we didn’t realise such a big thing had happened till we reached our hotel and read the papers,” she said.

Liz was particularly hassled when she heard that Britons had been targeted in Mumbai.

“Thank God we are safe here,” she said, sitting in the hotel’s portico and having tea with her husband.

The police have stepped up vigil in areas like Sudder Street and Free School Street, where most foreign tourists stay. A large police contingent was deployed in the area on Thursday morning and patrolling was intensified.

The cops used mirrors to check the undercarriage of cars and scanned the registration documents. “We have orders to arrest anybody we suspect to be a terrorist. More cops will be deployed at night,” an officer at New Market police station said.

Another foreigner, Frank Mensink from Holland, said he felt safe in Calcutta, but was pained by the recurring terror attacks in the country.

“It’s a matter of great concern as it is happening too often in India,” he said.