NY police add hotel security after Jakarta blasts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police stepped up security at major New York hotels on Friday after bombs ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta, killing eight people in the Indonesian capital, authorities said.

"There's no information of a similar threat to New York, but it's our standard practice now to take such precautions," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

New York -- home to Wall Street, the Broadway theater district and other attractions that draw millions of tourists and businesspeople every year -- has been highly attuned to security threats since the September 11 attacks in 2001 that killed 2,749 people at the World Trade Center site.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said extra squad cars and officers had surrounded large hotels in New York within half an hour of the Jakarta bombings.

Suicide bombers struck at the JW Marriott hotel and the nearby Ritz-Carlton in Jakarta. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the bombings were the act of a terrorist group bent on damaging the country.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and John O'Callaghan)