Bomb wrecks top Jakarta hotel
 Forensic teams have been searching the debris for evidence |
The blast severely damaged five floors of the American-run hotel, shattering glass and damaging cars parked outside.
Indonesian Defence Minister Matori Abdul Jalil said it was a bomb attack and "clearly an act of terrorism".
At least one foreigner, the executive of a Dutch bank, is among the dead.
About 120 people from a range of nationalities are said to have been injured.
Earlier reports that nationals from the US, Australia and Malaysia had been killed have not been confirmed.
The governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, said the explosion was "very likely" to have been carried out by a suicide bomber. 
These conditions are similar to the bombings in Bali 
Police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said there were similarities between Tuesday's attack and the devastating blast in Bali last October which left 202 people dead.
Police have said that in Bali, a suicide bomber detonated his bomb moments before an explosives-laden van blew up across the street.
Destruction
Police say the Jakarta bomb is thought to have been inside a Toyota car parked outside the lobby of the hotel, which is located near foreign embassies and office blocks.
The explosion came during a busy lunchtime in the commercial part of city.
Burned bodies lay amid pools of blood in the street among the shattered glass and twisted metal as flames and black smoke billowing up the building, correspondents say.
The BBC's Becky Lipscombe, reporting from the scene, said seven or eight wrecked cars littered the area around the entrance. People started to panic and tried to get downstairs as soon as possible
A cafe on the ground floor appeared to have borne the brunt of the blast, she said.
Witnesses said chaotic scenes followed the enormous explosion.
One woman in the hotel said she saw people running from offices holding their burning faces. Another witness said he was blown across the room by the force of the blast.
Madina Sar-Diarra, who lives in an apartment at the top of the hotel, told the Associated Press news agency that windows 30 floors up were shattered. 
"It was a panic and once downstairs, I saw several injured people, especially cooks of the restaurant, covered in blood."
The Dutch citizen killed in the blast was Hans Winkelmolen, 49, president of PT Rabobank Duta Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Dutch co-operative bank Rabobank.
Bank spokesman Jan Dost said Mr Winkelmolen went to Jakarta in 2000 and was due to return to the Netherlands at the end of August.
"It's unbelievable and very sad," he said. "We are shocked, and very sorry for the wife and two sons he leaves behind."
Presidential visit
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who recently vowed to destroy terror networks in the world's largest Muslim nation, visited the scene of the attack on Tuesday, but made no comment to reporters.
The government has said it will not give in to terrorism and announced unspecified restrictions to prevent further attacks.
The United States urgently renewed its calls for Americans in Indonesia to follow tighter personal security measures.
The BBC's Rachel Harvey says it is not yet clear who was behind the attack, but suspicion will inevitably fall on the group also blamed for the Bali bombings, an extremist Islamic organisation called Jemaah Islamiah.
Tuesday's blast came just two days before the expected verdict in the trial of a key suspect, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim.
Security has been tight in Indonesia since the bombings, and authorities have warned of similar threats.
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