Resident Report Bright Lights, Big Noise

In a country plagued by terror attacks from an affiliate of Osasma bin Laden's al Qaeda, things that go boom in the night are taken very seriously.

Residents of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, as well as the suburban towns of Tangerang, and Serang in West Java province, heard a series of earth-shaking explosions at around 0730 local on Sunday. But after a thorough police investigation, there appeared to have been no evidence of bomb blasts, gas explosions or anything else that might have made such a big noise.

So, they looked up.

"The police have searched throughout the regency and we found nothing to indicate a bomb or meteor," said one police officer on duty in Tangerang.

"It's suspected that a fireball originating from a big meteor entered the earth's atmosphere... This created the explosion," space expert Thomas Djamaluddin at LAPAN (the Indonesian space agency) told Reuters.

Police, who had been on high alert in anticipation of a major terror attack, were quick to investigate. They found nothing. Resident throughout West Java reported seeing bright lights streaking across the sky as the explosions rattled windows. One man south of Jakarta said he saw a large celestial object impact the Earth. There was no immediate confirmation.

Nor were there any radar indications of a meteor shower that might have caused the bright lights and big booms.

FMI: www.lapan.go.id