Jakarta Hotel Bombings: On the Ground

Dita Alangkara / AP Photo Australian trade official Craig Sender was killed in the attacks, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Apparently an American businessman and owner of the think-tank CastleAsia, James Castle, was hosting a high-powered business meeting over breakfast at the JW Marriott when the blast occurred. Castle and other executives at the meeting were rushed to the hospital. Top New Zealand businessman Timothy Mackay, 62, died in the meeting, New Zealand’s TV One reports.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was “sick to the stomach,” when he heard of the attacks. He has ordered Australian hospitals to reserve space in case victims need to be transferred out of Jakarta, The Herald Sun reports.

SECURITY

Metal detectors in the JW Marriott were not functioning, a fact Jakarta police say was only discovered after the attacks.

Jakarta police are on the highest level of security after the attacks, and are closely patrolling hotels, shopping centers, tourist areas, and main roads. The government has also ordered police to guard important economic locations in the city, which the Minister for the Economy said meant hubs of “energy, electricity, and airports.”

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

“I was having breakfast on level 16, I heard an explosion and went down to the first floor and it was a mess… I saw foreigners all bloody, about three to five of them, badly wounded.”—witness to TV One

“There were people in the elevator saying, ‘We have got to get the hell out of here’… The doors opened and the lobby was filled with smoke and everyone was evacuated.”—Tom Warden, who was working at the Ritz-Carlton, in the Australian

“I heard the second [bomb] go off, then all the sirens started ringing out over the city. Then all the phone calls starts. Sometimes I go to the gym in the morning. Luckily I slept in this morning. If I hadn’t, I might have been there.”—Australian travel journalist Natasha Dragun, on Australian blog The Punch

"There were people wandering out of the JW Marriott at that stage, I guess walking wounded would be the best way to describe them. These were people who were, you know, dust-covered, had cuts all over their body, you know, torn clothing. I saw maybe five or six people of that nature just wandering down and just sitting on the kerb [sic.] at the side of the road."—Peter Tuomey, JW Marriott

"The first I knew about it was when some colleagues in the country actually gave me a phone call to tell me to get the hell out of the hotel. So I tried calling up reception, there was no answer. Then I noticed the TV wasn't working. So I looked out of the window and saw, I could see down to ground level and I saw there was a lot of broken glass. So I thought it was time to actually get out. There was no evacuation warning or anything. I guess the surreal thing was going down in the elevator and walking through the lobby and looking across to my left and noticing the actual cafe was completely blown out."—Geoffrey Head, who was on the 23rd floor of the Ritz-Carlton

Compiled by Isabel Wilkinson.