Jakarta – Some 100 stock traders and executives staged a demonstration in front of the bomb-hit Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building yesterday, demanding that the government step up security at crucial economic institutions, witnesses said.

"We urge the government to step up security at key economic institutions such as the Jakarta Stock Exchange, Bank Indonesia and others," a spokesman for the demonstrators said. "JSX is an important economic and political institution."

The spokesman said Wednesday's bombing of the exchange, in which dozens of people died, was an "inhuman and barbaric action", and called on the authorities to investigate the attack thoroughly.