Indonesia central bank evacuated after bomb threat

JAKARTA, Feb 19 (Reuters) Indonesia's central bank building complex in the capital was evacuated today after police received a bomb threat, central bank and police officials said.

Sandy Januarlin, a Central Jakarta police official, said officers had since been at the building for about two hours checking the situation.

''The threat came from a text message at 1029 hrs to the police 1717 (emergency) number saying at 1330 hrs all employees at Bank Indonesia will be dead,'' said Januarlin.

A central bank official said there had been a bomb threat.

''Someone has called the police threatening to bomb BI,'' said the official, referring to Bank Indonesia.

There have been several bomb attacks in Jakarta and other parts of the country in recent years, many of them the work of Islamic militants aiming at targets with Western ties. There have also been bomb threats that have proved to be hoaxes.

Bomb blasts and threats have also sometimes been linked to separatist groups or criminal activities.

Major attacks tied to Islamic militants have mostly been in the capital or on the resort island of Bali.

A bomb attack in 2003 on the US-run JW Marriot hotel in Jakarta killed 12 people, while a bomb attack aimed at the Australian embassy killed 10 people a year later.

Suicide bomb blasts at nightclubs and restaurants popular with Western tourists in the resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 killed a total of more than 220.

REUTERS AKJ PM1428