A CAR bomb outside the Australian Embassy in Indonesia tore through central Jakarta yesterday, killing nine people and wounding more than 180.

The attack, which police blamed on militants with links to al-Qaeda, came before elections in Indonesia and Australia.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, the Indonesian President, flew back from neighbouring Brunei to visit the wounded, and John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, said that his country would not be “intimidated” by terror.

The explosion flattened the gates to the embassy, wrecked cars along a busy thoroughfare and shattered windows in nearby buildings. Among the dead were three policemen guarding the building. A dozen Australians were wounded, most by flying glass, but none was killed. The neighbouring Greek Embassy was gutted and three diplomats injured.

The attacker, who according to police may have been a suicide bomber, struck the commercial centre where diplomatic missions, shopping malls and businesses are located shortly after the morning rush hour.

Passers-by watched as dazed office workers were led out into the street in a cloud of choking dust and smoke. Rescue workers laid newspapers over the bodies; a severed leg lay on an intersection, the trousers torn off by the force of the blast.

Maya Indah, 26, who was among those wounded, described the moment the blast struck her third-floor office next door to the embassy. “Everything went black,” she said. “All the glass and the furniture and my computer were blasted in and then I started to run downstairs. Everybody was running everywhere.”

Police and regional analysts immediately blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, a southeast Asian group accused of bombing the Marriott hotel in the same neighbourhood last year, killing 12 people, and the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in 2002. General Dai Bachtiar, the Indonesian police chief, said that the attack bore the hallmark of the group’s master bombmaker, Azahari Husin, a Malaysian graduate of Reading University.

“The modus operandi is very similar to other attacks, including the Bali bombings and the Marriott blast,” he said. “We can conclude (the perpetrators) are the same group.”

Last night an Islamist website published a statement purportedly from Jemaah Islamiyah claiming responsiblity for the attack.

“We decided to settle accounts with Australia, one of the worst enemies of God and Islam, and a mujahidin brother succeeded in carrying out a martyr operation with a car bomb against the Australian embassy,” the statement said. Its authenticity could not be verified.

The bombing came just before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks in America, Indonesian presidential elections on September 20, and Australian elections next month. Commentators in Australia were quick to draw comparisons with the Madrid train bombs in the run-up to elections in Spain.

Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, said that the Government had been told a few days ago of a possible terrorist attack in Jakarta against Western hotels. “But we didn’t have any information of a specific attack on the Australian Embassy,” he said.

Australians have been advised to avoid making non-essential visits to Indonesia.

Mr Downer was joined by Kevin Rudd, Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman, Dennis Richardson, the head of Australia’s intelligence organisation, Asio, and Mick Keelty, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, on a flight to Jakarta to assess the situation.

Heavy security outside the embassy meant that it would have been almost impossible for a bomber to park a car next to the perimeter wall and walk away, fuelling suspicions that it was a suicide attack. Mr Howard called a news conference to condemn the attack, noting that heightened security may well have saved the lives of staff.

He insisted that it would be wrong to suggest that the bombing made an attack within Australia more likely. However, he cautioned that “Australians can take nothing for granted”.

The opposition Labor Party suspended its election campaign for two days out of respect for the victims. Mark Latham, the party leader, condemned the attack as evil and barbaric.Australia’s support for America in the Iraq war is emerging as a key election issue.

The attack has angered many in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where the authorities are preparing to press charges against the jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been accused of leading Jemaah Islamiyah and of playing a role in the Marriott blast.

Bashir, who has denied any link to terrorism, condemned the latest attack. “I’m very upset. I’m against all bombings like this,” he said, according to his lawyer.

“In their desperation, they will accuse me for this bomb attack just like they have the others.”

‘DEMOLITION MAN’

He escaped Indonesian police in Sumatra last year. Long-haired and lean-faced, he bore little resemblance to the one photograph police have of him

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• A doctor, a daughter and a man called Johnny
• Mona Lisa's smile may belie ill health
• ‘Parasite economy’ lies behind Greek tragedy