Bus set on fire in C. Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Angry residents set fire to a Metro Mini bus after it hit and killed a hotel employee on Jl. Let. Jend. Suprapto in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta.

It was the second bus burning incident after residents on Jl. Warung Buncit, in South Jakarta, set fire to a Kopaja bus which hit and killed an eight-year-old girl Monday.

Cempaka Putih Sub-Precinct Police Chief Maj. Tito said that Wahyudi, a Gran Melia Hotel telephone operator, was riding a motorcycle with his girlfriend, Tutut Slamet Widyastuti, when a speeding bus hit them at about 7:30 a.m.

"Wahyudi died at the scene and Tutut passed out. She suffered head injuries," Tito said.

He said angry locals, including ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers, threw stones at the bus, smashing its windows.

They set fire to the bus plying the Senen-Pondok Kopi route after the bus driver, identified as Zaenudin, escaped, he said.

Zaenudin, 23, of Jl. Cipinang Muara, in East Jakarta, surrendered himself to a nearby military station, he said.

Dozens of military officers on duty to safeguard the last day of the campaign period came to the scene, calming the angry crowd.

The remains of the bus were taken to a nearby police station for further investigation, he said.

Police rushed Tutut to the nearby Jakarta Islamic Hospital.

Tutut, an employee at Melawai Optic on Jl. Salemba, in Central Jakarta, left the hospital to identify Wahyudi's body at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue.

In tears, she said she could hardly remember anything.

"I was talking to Wahyudi on the way to work when the bus hit us," she said.

Gran Melia's telephone operator supervisor, Reza Bovier, said that 25-year-old Wahyudi, who lived on Jl. Ampera in Cilandak, East Jakarta, had worked at the hotel for only two months.

Meanwhile, Metro Mini's operations manager Timso Silaen said the company regretted the incident and would donate money to the dead man's family. (jun)