|
Jakarta mops up the blood
05/08/2003 15:28 - (SA)
Jakarta - The facade of one of Jakarta's most luxurious hotels belched thick black smoke on Tuesday as firefighters picked through scorched flesh and burning debris to tackle the aftermath of a deadly bomb blast.
Shortly after the blast, the charred bodies of two people lay on the driveway in front of the American-run JW Marriott Hotel as injured occupants and dazed hotel staff, many still in uniform, huddled outside the building.
Beside them, the five-star hotel, a centrepiece in Jakarta's gleaming new business district, stood in semi-ruin - a gaping hole puncturing the ground in front of the 33-storey structure. Up to 13 people were killed and scores injured.
As ambulances carried away the wounded and dead, tattered blinds rattled eerily behind the shattered windows of more than 60 rooms damaged by the force of the explosion. Some rooms had visible holes in their ceilings.
Even as rescuers began combing the debris for survivors, firefighters struggled to contain flames that continued to spread through the ground floor of the hotel and separate blazes in eight cars parked in front of the lobby.
Injured people covered in blood
Witnesses described how the explosion had earlier created chaos in the building as diners gathered for lunch overturned tables in their hurry to flee hotel restaurants frequented by foreign diplomats and businessmen.
Madina Sar-Diarra, who lives in an flat at the top of the hotel, said: "One of my windows was shattered by the force (of the blast) and I live on the 30th floor. We took the staircase to get down.
"It was a panic and, once downstairs, I saw several injured people, especially cooks of the restaurant, covered in blood."
Diners fled the Chianti Bistro on the ground floor of the hotel, leaving behind partially eaten plates of food and glasses of wine.
Jimmi, a waiter at the bistro, said: "I heard a loud bang, then I saw people coming out... some were bleeding and I saw several security guards at the Marriott Hotel were also badly injured. It was very chaotic."
Jimmi said he understood the blast happened just outside the entrance to the hotel, said by staff to be more than two-thirds occupied.
Taufiq Jaber, the Lebanese ambassador to Indonesia, was meeting an Indonesian diplomat for lunch and had been entering the hotel restaurant when the blast took place.
Embassies and missions all around
"We could feel the heat of the explosion which shattered glass all around us," Jaber told local television.
The explosion also rocked nearby buildings, alarming staff from tightly-guarded international embassies, including the Danish, Norwegian, Peruvian and Swedish missions, located in the area.
Andri Irwanto was dining on the seventh floor of the neighbouring Plaza Mutiara when the blast shook the building.
Irwanto said his car and others had undergone security inspections on entering the plaza. The practice has become common in Jakarta which has been shaken by a series of bombings in recent years, five of them in 2003.
The Marriott Hotel itself, frequently used for United States embassy functions and press conferences, often deploys high security measures, including sniffer dogs.
"This is an embarrassment to the national police. It is like being slapped in the face because they have been saying that Jakarta is safe from bomb threats," said a hotel kitchen worker.
Martoyo, another kitchen hand, said he never imagined the Marriott would be bombed and now he is worried about joining Indonesia's large number of unemployed.
"I will not be doing any work for some time," he said.
- AFP
|
News
