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Blast Rocks Shopping Mall in Indonesia Capital

Published September 23rd, 2001 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

An explosion apparently caused by a car bomb rocked a shopping mall Sunday in the Indonesian capital where a blast in August injured five people, police and officials said. 

Central Jakarta deputy mayor Petra Lumbun told journalists at the Atrium Mall that there had been no casualties. 

Central Jakarta district police chief Senior Commissioner Matheus Salempang said police had received a report of a bomb-like contraption inside a car parked on the second floor of mall's park, but arrived too late to defuse it. 

Wires and a timing device were seen sticking out of a package on the back seat of a sedan and parking attendants alerted the management which in turn alerted the police, he said. 

He told a press conference that police were notified at 10:30 am (0330 GMT) but the explosion took place 14 minutes later, before police could defuse it. 

Salempang declined to elaborate on the explosion, saying an investigation was underway. 

He said four cars, including the sedan, were seriously damaged by the blast while four others were lightly damaged. 

The mall and the road in front of it were closed to the public and car owners were not allowed to retrieve their vehicles from the parking lot. 

The blast caused panic among shoppers and shop owners who ran out of the building which was spewing smoke, an AFP photographer at the scene saw. 

Several witnesses said that they had heard two separate explosions. 

An official at the Central Jakarta fire brigade station said 17 fire engines were deployed and that the fire caused by the blast was quickly extinguished. 

A bomb went off at the same venue on August 1 which police have said was being transported by a Malaysian national, identified later as Taufik Abdul Halim, 26, from the southern Malaysian state of Johor. 

Halim was injured along with four other people -- JAKARTA (AFP)

© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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