JAKARTA, 05 August 2003 - An explosion outside the Marriott Hotel in downtown Jakarta on Tuesday killed at least three people and damaged the building, witnesses said. It was also not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a bomb. However, since last year's terrorist attacks in Bali, which killed 202 people, authorities have warned that more attacks were likely in Indonesia.
"I saw four badly burned bodies on the street," a reporter from Jakarta's El Shinta radio station said, adding that two cars were on fire in the hotel's vicinity. An Associated Press photographer saw three bloodied bodies on the street, but it was not clear whether they were the same El Shinta was referring to. "I heard a big bang and I tried to get out of the building as quickly as possible," said Asroni, a hotel staffer, as he picked bits of glass from his uniform. "The smoke was getting into my lungs."
Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, a police spokesman, said he had heard the report and that officers were on their way to the hotel. Black smoke could be seen rising from the front of the hotel, located in a district where many foreign embassies are housed, an AP reporter on the scene said. The hotel's lobby plate glass windows were shattered, as were some upper-floor windows. The hotel's streetside restaurant was badly damaged and pools of blood lay on the floor.
Structurally, the building appeared to be intact, however. The blast came two days before a court in Bali was scheduled to deliver its verdict in the trial of Amrozi bin Nurhashym, who is accused of planning and carrying out the Oct. 12 attacks in Bali. He is the first of about three dozen suspects to have been tried in the case, and is facing a possible death sentence if found guilty.
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