JAKARTA A grenade was thrown at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, but there were no casualties and little damage, AFP quoted the Indonesian police as saying Monday. "There was an explosion caused by a grenade thrown from outside the embassy," national police spokesman Brigadier General Dadang Garnida told AFP. "Whether it was thrown from a passing car or a person in the street we do not know yet, we are still investigating," Garnida said.
The grenade exploded in the parking lot of the embassy compound at 10.25 p.m. Sunday (1525 GMT), slightly damaging a wall, Garnida said. A councillor at the embassy, who asked not to be named, confirmed a press report that Malaysian Ambassador Datuk Rastam Mohamed Isa had received a letter earlier this month warning of an incident at the embassy. "The letter was unsigned and unconfirmed," the councilor said, refusing to elaborate. "But this is totally separate to last night's minor explosion," she told AFP. The Malaysian news agency Bernama reported Monday that the ambassador had received an anonymous letter in August warning of an "untoward incident." However, Bernama said the ambassador didn't believe Sunday's explosion was connected to the letter. The agency also said that a hand-grenade pin was found in the parking lot. The chief detective of Jakarta police, senior superintendent Harry Montolalu, said on Monday that his office had questioned three men who witnessed the blast on Sunday evening. "We have questioned two witnesses last night ... and another witness, the security guard of the Malaysian Embassy, was also questioned this morning," Montolalu told AFP. One of the three witnesses told police that an unidentified van had several times been seen driving past the embassy before the blast occurred, Montolalu added.
The councilor who spoke to AFP said embassy staff believed the grenade was thrown from outside the compound's fence, which she said was one-story high. The explosion is the second on a foreign embassy premises in Jakarta in less than a month.