Blast hits central Jakarta
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A powerful blast has hit Jakarta's central business district near the Australian Embassy, killing at least three people and wounding many more.
"Several bodies" were seen just outside the Australian Embassy's 6- meter (20-foot) high steel gate, which was mangled in the blast, CNN's Maria Ressa reported.
The blast -- which Ressa said was "far larger" than a blast which killed 12 in the JW Marriot Hotel in the same district last year -- shattered nearly all the windows in seven surrounding buildings, including several high-rises.
Witnesses reported hearing the blast as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.
The fortress-like Australian Embassy building is on Rasuna Said Road, one of central Jakarta's busiest roads, which is lined with office towers, embassies and hotels.
One witness told CNN they believed a car bomb set off the blast. Body parts were strewn around the streets and one body was thrown towards the center of a four-lane highway near the blast site.
Hundreds of police are trying to manage a chaotic scene as ambulances, fire trucks, wounded people and bystanders crowd amid the debris of burnt out cars and shattered windows near the gates of the embassy.
Video of the blast site showed rescue workers carrying out the injured on stretchers to a nearby hospital as helicopters circled ahead.
Police have sent in a bomb squad to search for more explosive devices.
A series of smaller blasts followed the major explosion and police have set up checkpoints to keep people away from the area in case of further explosions.
The Australian embassy has been evacuated, with a spokeswoman for the Australian government in Canberra telling CNN that no Australian-based staff at the embassy had been hurt. However, some local staff were still being accounted for.
Several countries including the United States and Australia have warned their citizens about possible attacks by militants in recent weeks.
Last Friday, Australia warned that "particular caution should be exercised in Jakarta, including the central business and embassy districts," and said that security at its embassy in the capital remained at a high level.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has been hit by a series of bomb attacks in recent years.
In October 2002, 202 people were killed in the resort island of Bali, many of them Australians.
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a militant group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network that is trying to set up a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia, has been linked both those blasts.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
