At least 3 dead as as blasts hit Jakarta

Police also said that 20 people were wounded in the attacks, among them at least five police officers and an Algerian, who police said escaped from the Starbucks.

“The two dead civilians are Indonesian and Canadian”, he said.

Gunmen in the area continued firing at bystanders and police, with sporadic gunfire reported for several hours afterwards.

He wrote: “They were part of the terror cell from Solo that was disrupted by police before Christmas”.

He said the other two attackers, carrying handguns, entered a police post from where he heard gunfire. The Associated Press reported that their reporter on the ground had seen at least one dead body.

“We are pursuing the network of assailants, namely the Islamic State [Daesh] network”, he said was quoted as saying by the VIVA news outlet.

1409 – A central bank official said markets have calmed after the Jakarta attack.

It turned the major downtown street in Jakarta, not far from the presidential palace and the US Embassy, into a battleground.

He said the ministry continued to advise New Zealanders in Indonesia to exercise a high degree of caution due to the ongoing threat of terrorism.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who was in the city of Cirebon at the time of the Thursday attacks, expressed condolences with the victims and said that he had ordered security forces to hunt down those responsible.

The suicide bombing and gunfight took place on Jl Thamrin, between a Starbucks coffee shop and a police post in the middle of a busy intersection.

Other blasts were reportedly heard in the Cikini, Silpi and Kuningan neighbourhoods, near the Pakistan and Turkish embassies.

He said police had received warnings in November from IS they were planning a “concert in Indonesia”, meaning an attack. A 2002 bombing on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, the majority of them Australian nationals.

Outside, two gunmen opened fire, killing a Canadian and wounding an Indonesian, he said.

Police had initially warned there could be as many as 14 attackers but later said the situation was “under control” and five militants, including a foreigner, were killed.

National Police spokesman Insp. About 150,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed during New Year’s Eve to guard churches, airports and other public places.