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10 Dead, Dozens Injured In Jakarta Hotel Blast
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The blast badly damaged the first five floors of the hotel
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JAKARTA,
Aug 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 10 people were
killed and 74 others injured Tuesday, August 5, after an explosion
tore through the luxury JW Marriott Hotel and surrounding buildings in
Jakarta's main business district, Indonesian police said.
"The
victims that have been recorded are 10 dead and 74 others
injured," National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar told a
press conference here, adding that the blast included one foreigner,
but declined to give his nationality.
The
blast damaged five floors of the American-owned hotel, shattering
glass and damaging cars parked outside, the BBC News
Online said as flames and thick clouds of smoke could be seen
billowing from the ground floor of the building.
The
badly burned bodies of two people, both appearing to be males, lay on
the driveway in front of the office building next to the hotel
awaiting an ambulance to carry them away, an Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reporter at the scene said.
Thirty-four
of the injured were rushed to the Jakarta Hospital and 26 others were
sent to the nearby MMC hospital, including one foreign male, ElShinta
radio reporters on the ground said.
"One
of my windows was shattered by the force (of the blast) and I live on
the 30th floor. We took the staircase to descend," Madina
Sar-Diarra, who lives in an apartment at the top of the hotel, told
AFP.
"It
was a panic and once downstairs, I saw several injured people,
especially cooks of the restaurant, covered in blood."
National
Police Detective Chief Erwin Mappaseng told AFP at the scene that the
blast "was caused by a car bomb."
Bachtiar
also confirmed that the blast was caused by a car bomb, a
multipurpose, Indonesian-assembled "Kijang" van.
He
told a press conference that "it is believed that the bomb was on
board that Kijang car," declining to speculate whether the blast
was due to a "suicide" bombing.
"There
were human body parts around the vehicle but it cannot be ascertained
as to whether they belonged to a perpetrator or to victims,"
Bachtiar said.
However,
the BBC quoted the governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, as
saying the explosion was "very likely" to have been carried
out by "a suicide bomber."
Indonesia's
defense minister Matori Abdul Jalil said earlier that the explosion
was caused by a bomb, adding that the blast at the hotel was the work
of terrorists, but declining to point the finger at the
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group.
"I
cannot say it is the JI ... but what is clear is that the arrests of
two or three JI members does not mean terrorism has ended," the
minister argued.
The
blast came just two days before the expected verdict in the
trial of a key suspect in last October's devastating
Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, mostly Western vacationers.
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