INDONESIA: HUGE CAR BOMB RIPS THROUGH A LUXURY HOTEL IN JAKARTA KILLING AT LEAST 14 PEOPLE

Record ID: 358888

  • Title: INDONESIA: HUGE CAR BOMB RIPS THROUGH A LUXURY HOTEL IN JAKARTA KILLING AT LEAST 14 PEOPLE
  • Date: 5th August 2003
  • Summary: (W4) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (AUGUST 5, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. TILT: EXTERIOR OF MARRIOTT HOTEL 0.05 2. SCU: DAMAGED WINDOWS 0.09 3. GV: CROWD AND POLICE AT THE SCENE/ SMOKE COMING OUT OF HOTEL 0.16 4. MV: MORE OF POLICE 0.19 5. MV: WATER TRUCK ARRIVING AT SCENE 0.24 6. MV: DAMAGED WINDOWS 0.29 7. MV/SV: MORE OF DAMAG
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA5JSSLJYQTEJMK4A8X8AHOBI80
  • Story Text: Bomb rips through luxury Indonesia hotel, killing at least 14 people.


    A huge car bomb ripped through one of the top hotels
    in Indonesia's capital on Tuesday (August 5), killing 14
    people and wounding about 150.

    The city's governor said a suicide bomber was probably
    responsible for the attack on the JW Marriott Hotel -- the
    second major blast to hit Indonesia in less than a year.

    It was timed as thousands of workers poured out of
    offices for lunch and mosques called the faithful to prayer.

    The blast ripped through the lobby and set fire to cars
    and taxis out front. Many windows in the 33-storey hotel
    were blown out. Wreckage from the charred lobby was strewn
    over a wide area.

    Diners were eating lunch in restaurants and cafes in
    the hotel and in a nearby office tower when the blast blew
    out windows and showered people with shards of glass.

    The Indonesian Red Cross said 14 people died and 150
    were wounded.

    "Thirteen bodies have been evacuated to hospitals while
    the last one, a human head without body, was just found by
    a Red Cross team on the fifth floor of the hotel," a senior
    Red Cross official said.

    Police have said a Dutch banking executive was among
    the dead, while two Americans, two Singaporeans, an
    Australian and a New Zealander among those wounded. The
    official Antara news agency said 111 people were injured,
    many seriously.

    One eye witness said: "We work at the florist and the
    explosion took place at about twenty to one, and then we
    heard a very loud bang."
    Answering reporter's question as to whether he had seen
    any people hurt, the witness answered "We saw about eight
    people injured".

    Australian tourist Simon Leuning who had just arrived
    from Perth and was relaxing in his room at the hotel when
    the explosion occurred.

    Leuning described how he had moved an injured person
    after the explosion: He said: "There was a lot of fire, and
    all the taxi drivers and their taxis were on fire...and a
    couple of the drivers didn't make it there. And there were
    a couple of other drivers, and we carried one of them out
    and he was stuck in the bushes. ....We found him in the
    bushes and he was alive, so we carried him out...the
    Belgian and myself,"
    A visibly angry chief security minister Susilo Bambang
    Yudhoyono condemned the bombing and said the government
    was determined to find the "inhumane" perpetrators. He also
    told Indonesians not to assume public places were safe.

    The National Police Chief, General Da'i Bachtiar, told
    reporters the car bomb blew up near the lobby, not the
    basement as earlier reports suggested.

    Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said, "There is a strong
    possibility this was a suicide bomber," while Defence
    Minister Matori Abdul Djalil was more blunt, calling it an
    act of terrorism.

    Washington said last week that Osama bin Laden's al
    Qaeda network was planning new suicide hijackings and
    bombings in the United States and abroad. The U.S. embassy
    held its 4th of July independence celebrations at the hotel.

    Tuesday's attack coincided with high-profile trials of
    suspected Islamic militants on bomb-related charges --
    including that of Abu Bakar Bashir, an influential cleric in
    the world's most populous Muslim nation.

    He is accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiah network
    blamed for a series of attacks on Western targets including
    October's Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of
    them foreign tourists.

    Marriot hotel managers said the hotel was 70-80 percent
    full at the time of the blast.

    The Marriott, popular with foreign businessmen, is in
    the wealthy suburb of Kuningan on a major road through the
    city's business district. The hotel is close to the
    diplomatic area of
    Menteng where many Western embassies and consulates are
    based.

    The Marriott, which opened in September 2001 and has 33
    floors and 333 rooms, is the latest luxury hotel in the
    bustling city, home to more than 10 million people.




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