Blasts heard in Indonesia

JAKARTA - Several loud blasts were heard in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and two nearby towns early on Sunday, but police said they had found no evidence of bombs and one radio report said it could have been a meteor shower.


Police, on high alert after warnings from Western governments of possible terror attacks over the Christmas and New Year period, said they were investigating the reports from residents of loud blasts.


Local Metro TV reported that residents had heard the blasts around 7.30 am in Jakarta, the satellite city of Tangerang, and also Serang in West Java province. El Shinta radio said it could have been a meteor shower.


"The police have searched throughout the regency and we found nothing to indicate a bomb or meteor," said one officer on duty in Tangerang.


Senior anti-terror police officers said there had been no reports of any bombs in Jakarta or elsewhere in the country.


Indonesian air force spokesman Sagom Tambun said there had been no radar readings indicating a meteor.


"We haven't found anything. I have checked with our radar," he told Reuters by telephone.


One caller to El Shinta from Bogor, just south of Jakarta, reported seeing a large object, suspected to be a meteor, hit the earth in the distance.


Five hours after the blasts were heard, there were no reports of any casualties or damage, indicating that bombs were unlikely.


Western governments, especially Australia, have warned that an international hotel could be targeted for attack, possibly one of the three Hiltons in the world's most populous Muslim nation.


In Washington, the US State Department issued a fresh warning late last week for Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, saying "the terrorist threat continues and may increase over the December-January holiday period".


"Reports indicate that terrorists are planning attacks against a wide variety of targets," the State Department said.


Police have tightened security across the country.


Islamic militants from Jemaah Islamiah, seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda, have launched bomb attacks in recent years in Indonesia, hitting nightclubs in Bali, the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the Australian embassy in the capital.


In the worst attack, 202 people were killed in Bali two years when militants bombed two nightclubs. The dead included 88 Australians.


On Friday, police found nine home-made bombs packed into cylinders on a bus in West Java. They detained 15 people including the bus driver over the discovery in the West Java capital Bandung, 140 km southeast of Jakarta.


Police have deployed an additional 18,400 personnel for Christmas and New Year to protect churches and entertainment centres across Indonesia .


- REUTERS