Multiple explosions and heavy gunfire in central Jakarta

**Monseratto** · January 14th, 2016 02:45 PM

Jakarta pictures show bodies in the streets after explosions and gunfire | Daily Mail Online

By LOUISE CHEER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 04:23 GMT, 14 January 2016 | UPDATED: 05:25 GMT, 14 January 2016

Multiple explosions and gunfire have rocked the centre of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta as police say they suspect a suicide bomber was responsible for at least one of the blasts.

Witnesses say six bombs went off, with at least four people, the ABC reported.

One blast went off in a Starbucks cafe and security forces were later seen entering the building.

Another explosion went off in front of a shopping centre called the Sarinah mall on a main city avenue and a third went off outside the United Nations building.

'The Starbucks cafe windows are blown out. I see [dead] people on the road. There has been a lull in the shooting but someone is on the roof of the building and police are aiming their guns at him,' a Reuters photographer said.

Photographs show bodies lying on the street and smoke rising up into the sky from the explosions.

Three more explosions also happened in Cikni, Silpi and Kuningan neighborhoods, near the Turkish and Pakistani embassies, Indonesian TV network TVOne reported.

A bank security guard said he saw at least five attackers, including three suicide bombers who exploded themselves at the cafe.

Tri Seranto told The Associated Press he was out on the street when he saw the three men entering Starbucks and saw them blowing themselves up one by one.

Indonesia has been on edge over recent weeks about the danger of Islamist militants and counter-terrorism police have launched a crackdown on people with suspected links to Islamic State

Terrorist bomb attacks on westerners by Islamic extremists in Indonesia is old news in the world's largest Muslim country and the island nation has always been a sitting duck for ISIS infiltration.

Last December, Australia's Attorney General George Brandis warned that Islamic State was seeking to establish a 'distant caliphate' in Indonesia 'either directly or through surrogates'.

This has long been the aim of the militant terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which perpetrated Australia's greatest terrorist attack in history, the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202.

Mr Brandis may also have been referring to one of Syria’s ISIS recruits from Indonesia, prison inmate turned jihadi scholar Bahrun Naim .

In a blog from Syria last year, Naim praised last year’s Paris attacks and urged fellow Indonesians to examine the planning, organisation and the 'courage' of the Paris terrorists.

Last December Australia and Indonesia held high level security talks just in Jakarta, just as Javanese police had arrested nine suspects ahead of a planned suicide attack on the capital. The arrested men were all former members of Jemaah Islamiyah, also known as JI and the attack was ‘ISIS-related’.

Mr Brandis said that ISIS had 'identified Indonesia as a location of its ambitions' and the location of its desired ‘distant caliphate’.

The arrival of ISIS in Indonesia would be the dream come true for JI’s long held aim to establish a 'Daulah Islamiyah' or regional Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia, and Australia’s worst nightmare – bringing Islamic State right to our doorstep.

Footage of people sheltering behind car as gunfire rings out

He said the other two attackers, carrying handguns, entered a police post from where he heard gunfire.

The guard said he later saw one policeman dead and three seriously injured.

He said he was not injured in the explosions as he was a little distance away, but close enough to witness the attack at 10.30am local time.

The guard said he saw two gunmen ran away with police chasing them.

Indonesia has been on edge over recent weeks about the danger of Islamist militants and counter-terrorism police have launched a crackdown on people with suspected links to Islamic State.

The UN's south-east Asia regional representative Jeremy Douglas tweeted a bomb had gone off in front of his building.

He then heard a further five bomb blasts and gunfire in central Jakarta.

'A massive bomb went off in front of our new office as *collie_brown & I exit car. Chaos & we're going into lock-down,' Mr Douglas said.

'Apparent suicide bomber literally 100m from the office and my hotel.'