Blast rocks capital shopping center
JAKARTA (JP): A strong blast rocked the three-story Hayam Wuruk Plaza shopping center in West Jakarta on Thursday morning, shattering the windows of at least four shops on the plaza's ground floor and panicking shoppers.
No casualties were reported and no arrests were made. Material losses are still being calculated.
About 10 minutes after the explosion, an attempted armed robbery occurred at a branch of Bank Central Asia (BCA), about 500 meters from the scene on Jl. Hayam Wuruk.
Police insisted the incidents were unrelated.
A security guard was stabbed to death and the bank's manager was severely wounded by at least four robbers, who were armed with machetes and guns. Two suspects were caught.
Police said the source of the blast was believed to be an explosive device placed in a flower pot in front of a vacant shop, which formerly sold cellular telephones and accessories.
The explosion occurred at 11:10 a.m., breaking the windows of the shop and two nearby businesses.
Shards of the flower pot hit windows of another shop, located about 50 meters away.
Also damaged were the steel awning over the walkway in front of the three shops.
Hundreds of shoppers, shopkeepers and their employees fled the shopping center after the explosion. Some of the people reportedly were injured in the crush to get out of the building.
According to a plaza security guard, Supandi, the blast was strong and could be heard from hundreds of meters away.
"I was on the third floor when the explosion happened. I heard it still could feel the reverberations," Supandi said.
Supeno, a representative of the shopping center's management, PT Gunung Sewu Inti Management, said the cellular telephone shop was vacated by the owner following last May's riots.
He said there were no valuables on the premises, but only four chairs, two wooden shelves and a large wooden desk.
A woman who runs a shop near the site of the blast said her child often relieved himself in the drain in front of the vacated shop.
"Luckily, he was not there at the time," she said.
Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman arrived at the scene several minutes after the explosion.
The incident led to heavy traffic congestion along the street as hundreds of passersby stopped to watch the drama.
The most recent bomb blast in the city, which is preparing for the June 7 general election, occurred on Jan. 3. A strong explosion destroyed a vacant three-story Ramayana department store and shattered the windows of nearby shops on Jl. Agus Salim in Central Jakarta.
A reliable police source told The Jakarta Post late Friday that the chemical composition of the explosive device in Hayam Wuruk was similar to an explosion at the Atrium Senen shopping center last Dec. 11.
"It's composed of, among other things, potassium, carbon and trinitrotoluene (TNT)," he said.
Based on preliminary examination of the remains of the explosive device at Hayam Wuruk, it's believed the bomb was equipped with a stopwatch as a timer device.
The Atrium Senen explosion occurred in an ATM booth of BCA at the shopping center in Central Jakarta, damaging the structure's windows, the ceiling and walls. There were no casualties and police have yet to make any arrests.
Separately, noted criminologist Mulyana W. Kusumah told the Post he believed the blast was unrelated to the nearby attempted robbery. He said it would be too simplistic for robbers to try to distract police attention by first setting off an explosion nearby.
"Let's not dramatize the incidents," said Mulyana, who also chaired the Independent Election Monitoring Committee. (jun/emf/01)