Jakarta: Eight people were killed and more than 160 people were injured when a powerful car bomb exploded near the Australian Embassy in Jakarta today (Sep 8, 2004).

Police immediately blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, the South East Asian terror network that is linked to al-Qaida. The group has been accused in several deadly bombings, including the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in the same neighbourhood last year, in which 12 people were killed.

No one inside the heavily fortified embassy was hurt, said Lyndall Sachs, a spokeswoman for the Australian Foreign Ministry in Canberra. The bombing flattened the mission's gate, mangled cars and motorbikes on the street and shattered scores of windows in nearby high-rise buildings.

"Initial investigations show this was a car bomb. We do not know whether anyone was in the car," police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said.

The Health Ministry said eight people had died and 161 were wounded. Three of the dead were policemen guarding the building, police said.

Bachtiar said the bombing bore the hallmark of Jemaah Islamiyah.

"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."

The embassy is located on Rasuna Said street, a main thoroughfare in the Kuningan district housing Foreign embassies, businesses and shopping malls. Bloody corpses and severed human remains were strewn across the street.