Series of explosions and attacks in downtown Jakarta
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - At least seven people have died, including a police officer and a suspected terrorist during the series of explosions that today hit the Sarinah shopping district, in downtown Jakarta.
At least seven bombs exploded around 10 am this morning. A police station was immediately struck, killing one policeman on guard, a passerby and another person.
It was immediately followed by a shootout between three terrorists and groups of policemen on patrol on Thamrin Boulevard, the downtown business district of Jakarta, very close to foreign embassies of Japan, Britain and the United States.
A suspected terrorist is among those killed, but two other terrorists are on the run and are thought to have taken refuge in Djakarta Theatre, a building that houses movie theaters near the Sarinah complex.
A few minutes later, other explosions were heard in other places, such as Cikini and Palmerah, in the center, and Kuningan, in the south of the capital. At the moment it is unknown whether these explosions caused victims.
The matrix of all attacks is still unclear, although the Indonesian police suspect they are attacks of Islamic terrorists.
President Joko Widodo was reached by the news while he was in Cirebon, about 200km from the capital, for the laying of the foundation stone of the new airport in the second city of the province of East Java.
He expressed condolences to the bereaved families of the 7 people killed in one of the explosions, at the Sarinah shopping center. Two foreigners were killed and five Indonesians.
The President has given orders to the police and army to launch a manhunt to capture the terrorists still at large. "We all condemn this act of terror - has said - and I have given orders to the police chief and the security minister to capture all those involved in this network of terror."
"The state and the nation - he added - should not feel defeated by any terrorist act, such as those that have taken place”. The President returned immediately to Jakarta.
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