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New Zealander Matthew Webster tells nzherald.co.nz his experience at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta where explosions have killed several people.
I was in the JW Marriott in Jakarta. Around 7.45am (12.45pm NZT) local time while packing my bag on my 10th floor room I heard an enormous explosion from below me and what seemed to be adjacent to the JW Marriott.
There was one shock wave that hit the hotel room and to a lesser extent, me. I called my family to say I was OK.
I was planning to meet my Finnish colleague (I work for Nokia Siemens Networks) in the Lobby for breakfast at 7.50am. However I was delayed slightly as I was packing my bag as I was flying out tonight to Singapore and onwards to Auckland.
When I caught the lift downstairs with 16 other people I saw extensive damage in the lobby. Glass was everywhere and there was blue smoke coming from the left hand side of the lobby and also externally from the hotel debris and glass was still falling from the ceiling and walls around 10 minutes after the explosion.
I was not able to check out and at this point I realised that the explosion had been inside the JW Marriott.
I realised at this point I was minutes from being in the immediate site of explosion.
I saw one man lying motionless on the street and I was not able to tell if he was dead or not.
He had no blood and was carried into a police car and driven away. The JW Marriott is about 30 metres back from the street and cars are unable to drive up the walkway to the hotel, so clearly it was not a car that originated the explosion.
The Indonesian Government has said that it is a terrorist attack so I can assume the explosion was a bomb.
There has been a similar explosion in the Ritz Carlton in a matter of minutes after the JW Marriott explosion.
The Ritz Carlton is roughly diagonally opposite the JW Marriott. I was not an eyewitness there, but did have a Thailand and Australian-based colleague who have both been accounted for as safe.
My local Indonesian colleagues are saying this happened because Manchester United are due to play a game against an all star Indonesian side in Jakarta tomorrow (Saturday) night.
There is speculation on how these bombs got in as every hotel has metal detectors, and security staff who search you and your bags every time you enter the hotel.
- nzherald.co.nz
