Ceremonies will be held in Australia and Indonesia today (9 September, 2024) to commemorate the 10 people killed on the day of the attack and more than 200 people injured in the bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta 20 years ago.
On September 9, 2004, a suicide bomber detonated a one-tonne bomb hidden in a truck outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which was the workplace for AFP officers based in Jakarta.
It was the first deadly attack on an Australian diplomatic mission, and all 10 victims were Indonesian citizens, including locally contracted staff who worked at the Embassy.
AFP Detective Superintendent Stephen Jay was then a Federal Agent working at the AFP’s Joint Operations Centre, which had been set up in response to previous terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing.
Det-Supt Jay was on his way to the Embassy to drop off paperwork when the bomb exploded.
“I will never forget the sight and the sound of the explosion, with the large mushroom cloud rising from where we knew the embassy to be,” he said.
“When I arrived at the scene there were people and debris everywhere – it was chaos.
