Blast rocks capital shopping center
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)