Frightening videos of Jakarta show Indonesian capital rocked by explosions and gunfire
Terrorists targeted a normally busy mall in the middle of the city.
A coordinated attack involving multiple explosions and gunfights took over Jakarta's Central Business District on Thursday morning, with authorities reporting that at least four attackers and three others have been killed. Indonesia President Joko Widodo has already issued a statement appealing for calm, but did call the incident an "act of terror."
The attacks all took place around Thamrin Street, in downtown Jakarta, an area that also includes a number of international embassies and the United Nations offices. The first explosion was heard around 10:30 am near the Sarinah shopping mall, and eyewitnesses have since said they saw three suicide bombers blow themselves up near a Starbucks in the area. Some of this was even captured on video.
The attacks were immediately followed by massive police deployment, with authorities concerned that many more terrorists were still at large even after the suicide attacks. As of 1:20 pm IST, reports suggested that the police had cleared the buildings of all attackers, but this is not confirmed.
Until then, people in the area reported a number of gunfights between police and the attackers. Office-goers tweeted about the explosions and the fighting, and the panic that followed, in scenes reminiscent of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, when multiple armed terrorists fired indiscriminately in popular parts of India's financial centre.