An explosion ripped through the ground floor of a busy shopping centre in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta today, injuring five people including one seriously, police and witnesses said.
Jakarta police spokesman Mr Anton Bahrul Alam said he did not know the cause of the explosion at the shopping complex in the Senen district of the city, but the bomb squad arrived not long after the blast.
Indonesia has been hit by several unsolved bomb attacks in recent months amid political tension that climaxed in the ousting of its first democratically elected leader, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, by the top legislature last week.
Thick smoke covered the multi-storied complex after the blast, which hit at around 8:00 p.m. local time(2 p.m. Irish time) and was heard a mile away, the official Antara news agency reported.
Police have since closed the shopping centre and evacuated the building.
More than 60 people were wounded in bomb blasts at two Jakarta churches during Sunday services on July 22nd.