22 pipe bombs exploded in Tuesday's blast: Police

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police Forensics Laboratory declared on Thursday that 22 pipe bombs, not three, had exploded in an empty room of a two-story boardinghouse in Pancoran, South Jakarta.

The blasts on Tuesday morning injured five people, damaged at least four cars and four houses. No fatalities were reported.

The laboratory's deputy chief, Sr. Comr. Dudon Setia Putra, said that aside from the seven active bombs found in and around the crime scene, police had also found 22 caps of pipes.

"The 22 caps, and the condition they were found in, clearly indicate that there were 22 pipe bombs," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Local residents said that they had heard three clear, loud bangs, which does not necessarily mean that each explosion was from one bomb. A series of bombs could have exploded at one time, causing a single bang, he said.

The bombs were cased in steel cylinders measuring approximately 10 centimeters long by five centimeters in diameter.

The bottom of the cylinders were capped with steel caps, with red-colored fuses at the top. Each pipe bomb weighed about 600 grams.

In total, Dudon said there were 29 pipe bombs, seven of which had not exploded as they had been thrown by the force of the blasts into rubble close to the crime scene.

"We still have no clue as to what caused the 22 bombs to explode. There were just no detonators found at the crime scene. The components of the bombs also indicate that there was no way the bombs could have exploded on their own," Dudon said.

The bombs all contained TNT (trinitrotoluene), potassium chlorate and sulfur.

City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said on Thursday that by early Thursday morning police had detained two men, who shared the same name as the main suspect, Edi Susilo, who matched the physical description given by witnesses in the case.

"We have shown the two men to the witnesses... neither of them are the Edi Susilo we are looking for," Anton said on Thursday.

Separately, City Police sent two teams of detectives and intelligence officers on Wednesday to Sumatra and Kalimantan, in search of a man who identified himself as Edi Susilo.

Tuesday's blasts occurred reportedly in "Edi's" empty room, located on the second floor of the boardinghouse.(ylt)