At least 14 people were killed and 148 injured in what the governor called a likely suicide attack on the American-run Marriott Hotel.
A Canadian man was among the injured. The Department of Foreign affairs says he's being treated in hospital with non-life threatening injuries
Police forensic team inspect Jakarta bomb site (AP PHOTO)
Indonesia's police chief, Da'i Bachtiar, confirmed that the source of the blast was a car packed with explosives. Jakarta's governor Sutiyoso said suicide bombers were likely responsible.
Broken glass covered the ground for two blocks around the 33-storey hotel. The blast gutted the lower floors of the hotel and shattered ground-floor windows in adjacent buildings.
The nearby embassies of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark were damaged.
Outside the J.W. Marriott Hotel (AP PHOTO)
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion will fall on Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamic extremist group blamed for last year's bombings in Bali.
The explosion occurred two days before a verdict is expected in the trial of a suspect in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings. The suspect is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah. It is also the first day of testimony by the group's alleged leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, for another bombing case.
- FROM OCT. 12, 2002: Car bomb kills 182 on Indonesian Island
President Megawati Sukarnoputri toured the wrecked hotel, and visited some of the victims in hospital.
White House spokesperson Scott McClellan called it a "deplorable attack on innocent civilians." Australian Prime Minister John Howard offered to send investigators to the scene.
Since the Bali attack, which killed 202 people, authorities have warned that similar attacks were likely to occur in Indonesia.
