Tuesday November 6 10:31 AM ET

Big Explosion Rocks Australian School in Jakarta

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A big explosion rocked the Australian international school in Jakarta on Tuesday night, Indonesian police said, but there were no immediate details on possible injuries or the cause of the blast.

``Yes, there was a big bang -- not in the residential area, but at the Australian school,'' a police officer at a nearby post told Reuters.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, has been racked by growing anti-Western sentiment over the U.S.-led strikes on Islamic-ruled Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed about 4,800 people.

Radical Indonesian Muslim groups have made threats against the United States and members of its coalition in Washington's ''war against terror'' -- including Australia -- but there have been no confirmed incidents so far.

The Australian embassy received a letter containing a white powder this week in what was feared to be Indonesia's first anthrax attack but the powder proved harmless after checks by U.S. military medical experts in Indonesia.

The Australian embassy was the target of violent protests, including petrol bombs and rifle fire, in 1999 after Australian troops led international forces into East Timor to restore peace. Pro-Jakarta militias had rampaged after the territory voted overwhelmingly to end Indonesian military occupation.

The Australian school, whose students include a close relative of a former Indonesian minister, was also the target of threats at that time and was forced to close briefly.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001