Explosions have ripped through two luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing at least six people, including four foreigners, and injuring10, police say.
Jakarta authorities have said the synchronised attacks at the five-star Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels were the work of a terrorist group, according to Melbourne radio station 3AW.
At least one Australian is known to have been injured in the blasts that happened within minutes of one another about 11am (AEST).
Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging by the hotels, said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott.
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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 have 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.
“I saw some people being carried into a Mercedes. There was a lot of them in there, they were having trouble closing the doors,” a witness, who gave her name as Mery, told ElShinta.
The Marriott hotel was attacked in 2003, when 12 died. Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah was blamed in that blast.
Source: 9News (Australia)
