Explosions tore through two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least eight people, a presidential spokesman said. The number of injured was in the 40s, said Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They were taken to area hospitals. Hours later, local television reported a car bombing in north Jakarta, but that report was immediately contradicted by various other media sources…
Explosions tore through two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least eight people, a presidential spokesman said. The number of injured was in the 40s, said Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They were taken to area hospitals. Hours later, local television reported a car bombing in north Jakarta, but that report was immediately contradicted by various other media sources.
Police sealed off the area around both hotel blasts, one in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the other at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, about 50 meters away. Djalal said the attacks were coordinated.
Forensics experts are collecting evidence at the "disturbing scene," Djalal said. He said he had few details about the blasts, which occurred about 7:45 a.m. (8:45 p.m. Thursday ET) on Friday, Islam’s holy day.
"What I can say is one of the most damaged areas that we looked at, where the bodies were, was a lounge area in the Marriott near the lobby," he said. "That seems to be the epicenter of the bomb."
"This is a blow to us, but I don’t have any doubts that we will be able to uncover and find out the perpetrators," Djalal said.
Police said the bomb at the Marriott likely came from the basement beneath the coffee shop on the ground floor, which would have been busy at breakfast time. Guests at both hotels have been evacuated & have been moved to a secure location. At the Ritz, windows were blown out on the second floor, as though the blast occurred from inside a hotel restaurant that would also have been crowded with a breakfast crowd, said witness Greg Woolstencroft. Another witness counted four foreigners among the wounded, according to state-run Antara New Agency.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel was to have accommodated soccer players from Britain’s Manchester United, who were expected to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday. U.S. Embassy Press Attache Paul Belmont told CNN no U.S. casualties have been confirmed and that the embassy was monitoring the situation closely.
The death toll may be higher than reported, said CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director of international operations. He said two U.S. businessmen were treated for minor injuries.
The television executive said he had lived at the Ritz for a year before moving to his nearby apartment and had been impressed by the facility’s security.
The Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people. In that attack, an explosives-laden vehicle pulled into the motor lobby of the Marriott and exploded at the height of the lunch hour. Friday’s attack "was not nearly as bad," said John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial Times who was at the site of both blasts.
Former CNN producer John Towriss, who has spent many years in Jakarta, said the Marriott and Ritz often share employees and an underground passageway connects the two buildings that sit across the road from each other.
Towriss said the Marriott has beefed up security since the 2003 attacks, making it impossible for people to drive up to the hotel in cars. Both hotels set up metal detectors and thick concrete barriers to prevent car bombers.
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