Ottawa investigating report of Canadian killed in Indonesia

“It’s true that a coordinated attack on the scale of Paris is not going to happen in Jakarta or Bali or anywhere else in Indonesia”, Jones wrote. It said they wore suicide belts and carried light weaponry. Witnesses had also told The Associated Press that they saw five attackers.

The Guardian reports that Risky Julianti, 25, a sales promoter at the Sarinah Mall, said she heard at least five more blasts and saw three people dead.

Seven people, including two suicide bombers, were killed and several others were injured in the suicide blasts in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, on Thursday morning. Until now, most of the militant violence had been limited to low-level assaults on police and was blamed on a resurgent Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda. About 150,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed on New Year’s Eve to guard churches, airports and other public places. Last month, anti-terror police arrested nine suspected militants and said they had planned attacks “to attract global news coverage of their existence here”. The heightened security ended January 6.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is on a working visit in the West Java town of Cirebon, has ordered security forces to hunt down the perpetrators and their network behind the attacks in Jakarta.

The bank said it moved to cut rates because fourth quarter economic growth did not show significant improvement while inflation remained low and within the target range set by the bank as commodity prices continued to weaken.

The Jakarta attack is being compared to the November 13 bombing in Paris in which ISIS attackers struck several locations at the same time.

Indonesian news outlet Metro TV News has cited a senior police officer saying a Canadian man was killed. Five assailants confirmed dead, AP reports. He rushed out and saw white smoke billowing from the Starbucks and people running in panic.

“I think this incident will definitely have an impact on travel to Indonesia, especially to Jakarta”, said Terence Cheong, director of Orient Travel and Tours, a travel agency based in Kuala Lumpur and the operator of MariMari.com, a hotel booking website. “He tried to hide behind a vehicle”.

As frightened civilians looked on, police engaged in gun battles with the attackers while bloodied bodies lay strewn about in the street. One of the explosions occurred when two attackers blew themselves up after riding a motorcycle at a nearby police post.

Indonesia’s coordinating minister for politics, legal and security affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, told journalists after reviewing the blast scene at Starbucks that fast-acting police prevented further carnage.

Explosions and gunfire rang out for hours before police declared the situation under control.

An Indonesian and a Canadian were killed in the attack and 20 people, including a Dutchman who works for the United Nations Environment Programme, were wounded.

Gen. Anton Charliyan said: “They imitated the terror actions in Paris… they are likely from the (Islamic State) group”.

Attackers struck in the middle of the day Thursday, in the middle of a busy central Jakarta commercial hub – killing at least two, wounding 19 and raising alarms about terrorism once more, this time in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“By evening, a large screen atop the building that houses the Starbucks displayed messages that said “#prayforjakarta” and “Indonesia Unite”.

“We don’t have to be afraid”.