Police still searching for cause of deadly theater fire

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Police have yet to discover the cause of a fire which ravaged the Regent theater and killed 14 people, including two Norwegian nationals, on Thursday.

Yogyakarta Police chief Lt. Col. Dadang Sutrisno said on Saturday that his office still had no clue as to the cause of the fire.

"The police forensic team from Semarang is still investigating the fatal fire. What we are doing now is probing into the case with facts we found at the site," Dadang said.

Reliable sources say that a team from the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta will be sent to Yogyakarta to further investigate the incident.

Fire gutted the Wijaya building, which housed the Regent theater, late Thursday night.

On Saturday four more corpses, victims of the fire which were kept at the Sardjito General Hospital, were identified as Norma Puspasari, alias Puspa, 28, of Semarang origin; Maria Laura Rejeki, alias Yayuk, 21, also from Semarang; and Mugihadi, a Yogyakarta resident.

"We still have two other unidentified bodies in the hospital," Sri Wahyuni Werdiningsih, spokesperson for the hospital, said on Saturday.

The bodies of Marit Namtvedt and Terje Sandblost, the two Norwegians killed in the fire, were flown to the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta on Sunday.

The Norwegians were students of Gadjah Mada University. Another Norwegian, Bente Robertsen, survived the fire.

Sri Prapti Wahyuni, spokeswoman for Bethesda Hospital, where Robertsen was treated, said Gadjah Mada University had arranged the required documents on the dead Norwegians. (23/44/sur)