New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has extended his sympathies to the family of the New Zealander killed when bombs went off at two luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta today.

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Supplied CAPTION: A view of one of the bombings from a nearby office block.

New Zealander Tim Mackay is one of nine people killed when bombs went off at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta. Mr Mackay, 62, had gone to the Marriott Hotel for a business meeting.

Thirteen other foreigners were among 50 injured in the blasts, the Associated Press reported.

Holcim TIM MACKAY: The New Zealander killed in one of the hotel blasts.

The facade was ripped off the Ritz in the powerful blasts.

A further unexploded bomb has since been found at the Marriott Hotel, Indonesian police said.

Mr Key, speaking at Napier airport, said: "Everything I have seen suggests that this is a deliberate attack designed to kill and wound innocent people."

"While we are still receiving information from the embassy [in Jakarta] about what happened, I would like to convey my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the New Zealander killed.

"I extend my deepest sympathy also to the people of Indonesia and all others who have been caught up in this terrible event."

Mr Mackay, the president director of PT Holcim Indonesia, was the New Zealander killed, the company's marketing director Patrick Walser told Reuters news agency.

President director since May 2004, he is a Master Mariner and holds an MBA from Massey University. He was formerly married, and has two grown children, TVNZ reported.

The New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Wellington would only confirm that a New Zealander had died.

Holcim New Zealand released a statement this evening, referring to "unconfirmed reports" that Mr Mackay had been killed.

It said Mr Mackay worked for Holcim New Zealand in the early 1990s as shipping manager and as manager of Buller Port Services, based at Westport. He was CEO of an associated company in Fiji before moving to work for Holcim internationally.

"We are aware that Tim has many colleagues within Holcim New Zealand and throughout Holcim globally who will be deeply saddened if these reports are correct," said Holcim New Zealand acting CEO Glenda Harvey.

The New Zealand Embassy said it was working to find out about the well-being of all New Zealanders in Jakarta and was talking to local authorities and checking hospitals and hotels.

New Zealanders concerned about friends or family in Jakarta should call 04 439 8000.

The ministry's travel advice for Indonesia says there is a high risk to travellers' security in the country. It advises against all non-essential travel due to the continuing "high threat from terrorism".

JEMAAH ISLAMIYAH BLAMED



No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but suspicion has immediately fallen on al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. It had been more than three years since a major terrorist attack in Indonesia.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is now warning that terrorists could be planning more attacks in Indonesia. DFAT said it continued to receive credible information that terrorists could be planning further attacks in Indonesia, and Bali remained an attractive target.

Reports of a third bombing in a shopping complex in the north of Jakarta have been denied by police, who said it was a faulty car battery.

NZ EMBASSY 'EXTREMELY CONCERNED'

New Zealand Embassy staff in Jakarta have been dispatched on foot to hospitals, Ambassador Phillip Gibson said.

Mr Gibson said he was "extremely concerned" at the report a New Zealander was involved, and embassy staff were arriving at hospitals to try to verify it and offer assistance to any injured Kiwis.

Police from the embassy were close to the scene of the explosions working with local police and Australian colleagues, Mr Gibson said.

The embassy was also contacting the 281 New Zealanders registered with MFAT as being in Jakarta to tell them of the situation and remind them to take care in the meantime.

So far 50 are confirmed safe and well.

An MFAT spokeswoman said the ministry was working with the New Zealand consulate in Jakarta to find out more information.

WITNESSES

Lydia Ruddy, a witness who lives in the area, told Reuters she could see debris everywhere after the explosions.

Another witness, Myra Junor, who works at a nearby building, said: "Some windows of the Ritz-Carlton building have been shattered, mostly on the lower section. I'm looking at it from my office."

She heard an explosion and saw smoke coming from the Marriott, followed five minutes later by another explosion at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, which is in the same area.

A man jogging by the hotels, Alex Asmasubrata, said he first heard the loud explosion from the Marriott, then the Ritz bomb. He saw four bodies inside the Marriott.

KIWI WITNESSES

Jakarta-based New Zealand journalist Chris Holm, a former Stuff.co.nz editor, said from the scene that the bomb went off in the basement.

"I can see damage up to the first floor, windows have been shattered, the building has been affected," Holm said.

There was no fire and no one was currently being evacuated.

"There are definitely Westerns injured," he said.

Meanwhile, New Zealander Nigel Warden said his son Tom was working at the Ritz-Carlton, having just arrived yesterday to train bar staff for a week.

Mr Warden said Tom was coming down in the lift and was on the tenth floor when the explosion occurred. He was unharmed in the blast.

"We are most relieved," he said.

A New Zealand police spokeswoman said that a New Zealand officer was stationed in Jakarta but was unlikely to be called in to help with the investigation.

"He may be called on to assist by those local police but there's no guarantee of that," she said.

The post was created in 2002 as a counter-terror measure following the September 11 terror attacks in New York. Officers are also stationed in Washington DC and London.

HOTEL BOMBED BEFORE

The Marriott hotel in Jakarta has been bombed before, with 12 people killed in a 2003 car-bomb attack.



Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has a history of bloody terrorist attacks, including the Bali bombings of 2002 which claimed 202 lives including three New Zealanders and 88 Australians.

Eleven people were killed, including a suicide bomber, in a car bomb attack on Australia’s embassy in Jakarta in 2004.

Three years after the Bali bombings another terrorist attack at the tourist island claimed more than 20 lives.

- Stuff.co.nz, with AP, Reuters, with NZPA

