A number of explosions shake a mosque in an Indonesian highschool, injuring dozens

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities stated they’ve recognized a 17-year-old boy because the suspected perpetrator of an assault that shook a mosque at a highschool throughout Friday prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, injuring not less than 55 individuals, principally college students.

Police brushed away hypothesis for now that the blasts had been a terror assault, saying they had been nonetheless investigating.

Witnesses advised native tv stations that they heard not less than two loud blasts round noon, from inside and out of doors the mosque, simply because the sermon had began on the mosque at SMA 72, a state highschool inside a navy compound in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighborhood.

College students and others ran out in panic as grey smoke stuffed the mosque.

“The information I have is that the suspect is undergoing surgery,” Deputy Home Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad advised reporters after visiting scholar victims at a hospital. “The suspect is a 17-year-old male student,” he stated with out giving extra particulars.

Nationwide Police Chief Listyo Sigit confirmed in a information convention on the presidential palace in Jakarta that the suspect was one in all two college students who had been present process surgical procedure as a consequence of struggling critical accidents within the blasts.

“We have identified the suspected perpetrator,” Sigit stated after attending an occasion with President Prabowo Subianto on the palace, “Our personnel are currently conducting an in-depth investigation to determine the suspect’s identity and the environment where he lives, including his house and others.”

Sigit stated police investigators are nonetheless accumulating all info to find out the motive, together with how the suspect was capable of assemble a toy submachine gun with phrases inscribed on it together with “14 words. For Agartha,” and “Brenton Tarrant: Welcome to hell.”

Individuals look on as army personnel stand guard close to a college the place explosions reportedly occurred, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday.

Dita Alangkara/AP

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Dita Alangkara/AP

“14 words” is usually a reference to a white supremacist slogan, whereas Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 mass capturing at a mosque and Islamic middle in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 and injured dozens of others.

“We discovered the weapon was a toy gun with specific markings, which we are also investigating to understand the motive, including how he assembled it and carried out the attack,” Sigit stated, including that the teenage male suspect was a scholar on the college.

Many of the victims suffered accidents from glass shards and burns. The reason for the explosions was not instantly recognized however they got here from close to the mosque’s loudspeaker, in keeping with Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri.

He stated the injured had been rushed to close by hospitals and 20 college students remained hospitalized for burns, three of them with critical accidents.

“Police are still investigating the scene to determine the cause,” he stated and urged in opposition to hypothesis that the incident was an assault earlier than the police investigation is accomplished.

Movies circulating on social media confirmed dozens of scholars in class uniform working in panic throughout the varsity’s basketball courtroom, some protecting their ears with their fingers, apparently to guard themselves from the loud blasts.

Among the injured had been carried on stretchers to ready vehicles.

Shocked family of the scholars gathered at facilities arrange at Yarsi and Cempaka Putih hospitals to hunt details about their family members. Mother and father advised tv stations their youngsters had wounds from being hit within the head, ft and fingers by sharp nails and items of exploding objects.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, was struck by a significant militant assault in 2002 when al-Qaida staged bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 individuals, principally overseas vacationers.

In subsequent years, there have been principally smaller, much less lethal strikes which have focused the federal government, police and anti-terrorism forces, in addition to these thought of infidels by militant teams.

Friday’s assault was not the primary mosque assault. In 2011, a Muslim militant blew himself up in a mosque at a police compound in Cirebon full of officers throughout Friday prayers, injuring 30 individuals.

In December 2022, a Muslim militant and convicted bomb-maker who was launched from jail the earlier yr blew himself up at a police station in West Java, killing an officer and wounding 11 individuals.

Since 2023, the Southeast Asia nation has skilled what authorities name a “zero attack phenomenon,” crediting the federal government with the secure safety state of affairs.