Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta bombed

[pulses]

Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta bombed

Mark Dunn, Reuters, AFP
July 17, 2009 11:23am

UPDATE 2.46pm: ELEVEN people have been killed in three separate bomb blasts that rocked Jakarta today.
A car bomb that exploded outside a shopping centre in North Jakarta killed two people, Indonesia's Metro TV reported.
The car bomb blast came just hours after two bombs ripped through the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels about 8am local time, killing nine people and injuring at least 48..
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said it appeared the hotel attacks were coordinated and premeditated and that at least two Australians were ramong the injured.
She said DFAT was working with the Australian embassy in Jakarta to try and locate the injured people.
She said the travel advisory for Indonesia had been updated and Australians have been warned to avoid travel to affected areas.

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• Video: Foreigners killed | Jakarta hotel bombings
• Pictures: Hotel bombings in Jakarta
• Listen: Reporter on scene | Terror expert (COURTESY 3AW)
• Deadly past: History of bombings in Indonesia
• Analysis: JI jihadis still plotting terrorism
• Twitter feed: Read the Jakarta Tweets
• DFAT hotline: 1300 555 135

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One blast at the Ritz Carlton reportedly blew much of the facade away from the building.

A second explosion occurred at the JW Marriott Hotel, which was also targeted in a 2003 terrorist attack by Jemaah Islamiah which killed 12.
The Manchester United soccer team was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on July 18 and was booked to stay at the Ritz Carlton, said Azwan Karim, media officer for the Indonesia Football Association.
Melbourne man Steve, 39, who was staying in the nearby Ballajio apartments which backs onto the Ritz, said the area had been devastated.

"I can see the ground floor and the upper floor - the breakfast buffet area has exploded and there is glass everywhere," Steve told the Herald Sun.

He said he was having a shower at 7.45am local time when he heard a loud boom.

"There was a definite thump, I was getting out of the shower and I thought that's strange to have thunder at that time of the morning," he said.

He said five minutes later another boom occurred and he understood then that the incidents were terrorist attacks and the second blast was at the Marriott, also close by.

"There are lots of police in the streets," he said.

A father told 3AW radio his son had been injured in the blasts.

Witnesses at the scene told Indonesia's Metro TV that the injured, including Indonesians and foreigners, were seen being taken away in ambulances.

"Some windows of the Ritz-Carlton building have been shattered, mostly on the lower section. I'm looking at it from my office," said Myra Junor, who works at a nearby building.
Debris and shattered glass littered the street outside, and ambulances were being shuttled into the area.
Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging by the hotels, said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz.

He saw four bodies inside the Marriott, including one with its stomach blown out.

Witnesses said they saw injured people being evacuated by car from the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the upscale Mega Kuningan business district in the centre of the city.

Police sealed off the area near the hotels, an AFP correspondent said. Windows had been blown out of a second-storey restaurant at the Ritz Carlton.

"I heard two sounds like 'boom, boom' coming from the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. Then I saw people running out," security guard Eko Susanto told AFP.

Witness Intan told TV One one of the explosions wrecked the lobby of the Plaza Mutiara building.

"I was having breakfast on level 16, I heard an explosion and went down to the first floor and it was a mess. I saw foreigners all bloody, about three to five of them, badly wounded," she said.

They had their elections recently (last week?) and it's tourist season being school holidays in Australia, lots of incentives for those behind it...

[FlyingKiwi]

It's unfortunate to see this sort of thing happen in Indonesia again, but sadly not really surprising. Apparently one of the people killed was a New Zealander.

[bobzilla]

this is sad!

[FlyingKiwi]

Some sources are reporting that the alleged mastermind behind these attacks, Noordin Mohamed Top, has been killed in a police raid.

This article on BBC doesn't confirm yet whether Top has been killed.

[FlyingKiwi]

Now police are apparently carrying out DNA tests to determine whether it was indeed Noordin Mohamed Top.