At least four people, including a policeman, are dead after militants carried out a series of apparently coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the heart of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
There have so far been no claims of responsibility, but one analyst likened the timed attacks to the Paris massacre where gunmen struck several locations at the same time.
One of the targets of the Thursday attacks was a police station, located next to a busy shopping center, the Sarinah Thamrin Plaza.
Gunmen used grenades and engaged in a firefight with officers, police spokesman Anton Charliyan said.
The dead comprised of an officer and three civilians, police said.
Police poured into the nearby Skyline Building, where other gunmen are believed to be holed up. A Starbucks coffee shop in the building appeared to have been another target.
Amateur video, posted on Twitter, appears to have caught one of the explosions outside the shop.
“You couldn’t get much more central in Jakarta if you tried. It’s basically right smack dab in the central business area,” said Jeremy Douglas, who works in the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, located in the area.
“If you wanted to make an impact, and get visibility for what you’re trying to do, this is the place to do it.”
Douglas said armored personnel carriers and tactical teams had cordoned off the area.
“What we’re told is there’s a gunman who’s holed up in a small shopping arcade across the shopping mall,” he said by phone from the U.N. offices, where staffers were under lockdown. “I can see probably about 40 police, tactical or S.W.A.T. type police right now.”
Echoes of Paris
CNN security analyst Bob Baer, said the attack bears the signature of ISIS.
It “sounds like the Paris attack to me,” Baer said. A lot of these fighters are getting combat experience in Iraq and Syria, many of whom have experience handling and detonating explosives, he said.
Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, has been on high alert in recent weeks. Police and and military operations are focused on hitting the East Indonesian Mujahadeen, which has pledged support for ISIS.
