The shadow of terrorism fell across Indonesia again this morning when at least eight people, including some foreigners, were killed and at least 50 were injured in two large explosions at luxury hotels in Jakarta.
The near simultaneous explosions occurred at about 8am in the Ritz-Carlton and in the nearby JW Marriott, the hotel where 12 people were killed and 150 injured in a suicide bombing almost six years ago.
Many of the residents at the Marriott had rushed into the street when they heard the first bomb go off, preventing further deaths as the Marriott restaurant was nearly empty when the second blast occurred.
Manchester United were booked to stay at the Ritz-Carlton tomorrow on the Indonesian leg of their Asian tour. The fixture in Jakarta against an Indonesia Super League XI on July 20 has now been cancelled, the club said today.
The Foreign Office said it had no indication of any British casualties.
Theo Sambuaga, head of a parliamentary commission in charge of security affairs, said that there was evidence the blasts were caused by by suicide bombers.
"We received a report that eight died at the scene … including a suicide bomber," he said.
Police later found a third, unexploded bomb in a room at the Marriott, which they believe was the "command centre" for the bombers.
Television pictures showed police and rescue workers outside the Ritz-Carlton and walls and windows blasted out on the first floor.
Police said that one blast hit the basement of the Marriott just before 8am local time, and a second struck the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton moments later.
The street in front of the Marriott had been sealed off but witnesses reported seeing blood on the pavement.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected to a second term in the mainly Muslim country last week, was deeply concerned about the incident, a spokesman for his office said.
Kevin Cruise, vice-president of security at the Ritz-Carlton, said that the explosion occurred inside the Airlangga Restaurant, blowing out the windows.
"I was in the restaurant immediately after the explosion," Mr Cruise told The Australian newspaper. "It looks terrible, with a lot of cosmetic damage, and I was really afraid about injuries, but there appears to have been no serious ones."
Tom Warden, 25, a New Zealander working at the Ritz-Carlton, said the blast occurred as he was about to have breakfast.
"There were people in the elevator saying ‘we have got to get the hell out of here’," Mr Warden said.
"The doors opened and the lobby was filled with smoke and everyone was evacuated."
Witnesses told Indonesian media that the injured, including Indonesians and foreigners, were taken away in ambulances.
"Some windows of the Ritz-Carlton building have been shattered, mostly on the lower section. I’m looking at it from my office," Myra Junor, who works at a nearby building, told Metro TV .
Others told ElShinta radio they could see injured people being evacuated by car from the Ritz-Carlton.
"I heard two sounds like ‘boom, boom’ coming from the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. Then I saw people running out,” Eko Susanto, a security guard, said.
A woman named only as Intan told TV One that 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.
The Ritz and the Marriott, located next door to each other in the upmarket Mega Kuningan business district in the centre of the city, are two of the most securely guarded hotels in Jakarta. Security has been increased heavily since the bombing by al-Qaeda-linked militants of the Marriott hotel in 2003, and the terrorists behind today’s blasts would have had to avoid dozens of guards to plant their bombs.
Authorities said that it was too early to identify the cause if the explosions or those responsible, but immediate suspicion will fall on Islamic extremists who have carried out other deadly attacks in Indonesia this decade, including the earlier bombing of the Marriott and the devastating bombings of the holiday island of Bali in 2002.
The Bali attacks were carried out by a network of radical Islamists identified as Jemaah Islamiyah. Three men were executed by firing squad last November for the murder of 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
But there had been no major incidents since a smaller bombing in Bali in 2005, and the Indonesian Government has been praised for its success in countering terrorism and heading off the rise of extremism among the world’s largest Islamic population.
About nine out of ten of Indonesia’s 238 million people are Muslim, but the strain of Islam which most of them follow is tolerant and inclusive compared with the more austere faiths of the Middle East.
The Australian Government advised travellers to think twice before travelling to Indonesia. "We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Indonesia, including Bali, at this time due to the very high threat of terrorist attack," the Foreign Ministry said.