Over 50 injured in shocking Jakarta high school mosque explosion

International

SMOKE, shattered windows, and panic.

A mosque inside a Jakarta high school exploded Friday, injuring more than 50 people.

Police say a 17-year-old student may be behind the attack, which is now under investigation.

The blast occurred at approximately 12:15 local time (05:15 GMT) at a state-run high school in Kelapa Gading, a district in Indonesia’s capital.

Most of the victims were students who suffered a range of injuries, including severe burns.

The suspect was also injured, Indonesia’s police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, said in a BBC report, adding that authorities are investigating “how the suspect assembled and carried out the attack.”

A bomb disposal team was deployed to the school to collect evidence and ensure no other explosive devices were present.

Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes after the blast.

A school cook told Reuters, “Our hearts were beating fast, we couldn’t breathe,” as white smoke rose from the mosque and shattered windows signaled the force of what she described as a massive explosion.

Several students told Indonesian media that the suspect had been bullied, often kept to himself, and had made drawings depicting violence. He was found lying on the ground after the explosion.

Authorities also reported finding two objects resembling firearms at the scene.

Photographs published by Antara show one object resembling a submachine gun and another appearing to be a pistol.

The submachine gun-like object reportedly bore the inscriptions: “14 words. For Agartha” and “Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell.”

Tarrant was responsible for the 2019 mass shooting at a mosque and Islamic centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 51 people and injured dozens more.

A minister who visited the site later clarified that the objects were not real firearms.

Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus told CNN Indonesia that what had been pictured “turned out to be a toy gun, not a real gun,” and urged the public not to assume the explosion was a “terrorist act” while investigators continue their work.

Another item recovered at the scene was a dark green belt used to store gun cartridges.(MyTVCebu)