First arrest made in Bali bombings

INDONESIAN police have made their first arrest over this month’s suicide blasts on the island of Bali, picking up a man believed to have shared a house with one of the bombers.

Three suicide bombers killed 20 people when they strolled into separate restaurants on October 1 and detonated backpacks laden with explosives. About 150 people were wounded.

“This person is strongly suspected of having links with the Bali blasts,” deputy national police spokesperson Soenarko Artanto said.

Mr Artanto said the man, a construction worker identified only by the initials HS, was arrested in the East Java provincial town of Jember on Sunday under the country’s anti-terrorism laws.

Jember police chief Syafril Nursal said the man once worked at Bali’s Jimbaran Beach, where two of the bombings took place.