Bombay, India ? India’s financial center came to a halt Tuesday as trains, cars and pedestrians paused during the evening rush hour to remember the moment one week ago when bombs ripped through Bombay’s commuter rail network.

Sirens wailed at 6:24 p.m. – the time the first of seven bombs shook the city’s commuter rail lines – followed by two minutes of silence in this proudly frenetic city of 16 million people.

Trains stopped. Cars froze at intersections in dense traffic. On sidewalks and street corners, large crowds gathered, unmoving and silent, in memory of the 207 people killed.

“I don’t know anyone who died,” said Ratna Phalni, 24, who came to the railway station in suburban Mahim, scene of one of the blasts, where officials joined President A.P.J. Kalam to bow their heads in memory of the dead. “But tomorrow it could be me, or someone I know.”

The minutes of silence came as the death toll from the attacks rose to 207, making it the deadliest terrorist bombing since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Also Tuesday, police said five men were arrested in northeastern India and they will be questioned to see if they are connected to the blasts.

The total number of deaths rose Tuesday from 182 after officials counted victims who died after being taken to hospitals in Thane, a town just outside Bombay, said B.M. Raut, a disaster management official in the state government of Maharashtra, where Bombay is the capital.

While police are still trying to determine who was behind the attack, an organization calling itself Lashkar-e-Qahhar said in an e-mail to a local TV station that 16 people took part in the bombings in Bombay, also known as Mumbai, and that one was killed.

But “all the remaining 15 … are totally safe, and celebrating the success of this mission and also preparing for the next mission,” said the e-mail, written in poorly punctuated and often ungrammatical English.

It advised Muslims not to go near main historical and government sites, or risk getting hurt.

In the e-mail, a copy of which was provided by Aaj Tak television, Lashkar said it would provide audio and video proof of its involvement.

Lashkar-e-Qahhar, or the Army of Terror, first took responsibility for the Bombay bombings in an e-mail Saturday to the station. Investigators say they are trying to verify the claim.

The group was unknown until it claimed responsibility for the March 7 bombings in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi that killed at least 20 people. Investigators believe it may be a front for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan that has long fought Indian rule in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim Himalayan region.

Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and largely Hindu India, and lies at the heart of their rivalry.

The five suspects, who will be questioned about possible links to the Bombay attacks, were arrested in the northeastern state of Assam, police said. All are Muslims.