Blast rocks Jakarta

The powerful bomb that exploded on Thursday outside the Australian Embassy in the Kuningan business district, South Jakarta, was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks across the country since 2000. At least seven people were killed and 161 others wounded in the blast, which came one year after a suicide bomb ripped through the JW Marriott Hotel on Aug. 5 in the nearby Mega Kuningan business district, nearly two years since the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings, and two days before the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the U.S.

Photo A +B: Blast

Photo A: JP/Mulkan Salmona

Photo B: AP/Achmad Ibrahim

SIFTING FOR ANSWERS: The Jakarta Police's forensic team (photo above) comb through debris for traces of the bomb that exploded in front of the Australian Embassy in South Jakarta. Upon her arrival from Brunei on Thursday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri (photo right) visited the site of the explosion, accompanied by foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda (right) and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro Jakti (second right, partially hidden), where she met with Australian Ambassador David Ritchie (left).

Photo C+D: Blast

Photo C: JP/Arief Suhardiman

Photo D: JP/Arief Suhardiman

COUNTING THE LOSSES: A police officer collects information from toe tags attached to the bodies of victims who perished in the blast, laid out in the morgue of the Metropolitan Medical Centre (MMC) hospital (photo left). Police denied entry to staff members of the Australian Embassy due to tightened security measures following the blast on Thursday (photo right).