Indonesia blast survivor thought he was going to die

By Sunanda Creagh

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The first thing that Canadian businessman Andrew Cobham remembers about the Jakarta bomb attack he survived on Friday was a booming sound and a bright, white, light.

"There was a loud bang, a bright flash and suddenly you couldn't see anything or anybody. The whole place was in turmoil," Cobham told Reuters on Saturday in a bedside interview at South Jakarta's Metropolitan Medical Centre.

Cobham, 65, an adviser to the consulting firm CastleAsia, was attending a regular business breakfast hosted by the company in the lobby of the luxury JW Marriott on Friday morning when a suicide bomber struck.

It was followed by another suicide bomb at the nearby Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which is also in Jakarta's main business district.

Police said on Saturday that eight people had died in the attack -- including the two suicide bombers -- and at least 53 were injured.

SUSPICION

Suspicion has fallen on a splinter group of the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah as likely perpetrators.

The CastleAsia breakfast, an off-the-record get-together, was attended by several mining and energy executives including New Zealander Tim Mackay, chief executive of cement firm Holcim Indonesia, who was killed, his company said.