More than 50 people visited An explosion occurred during Friday prayers at an Indonesian mosque, causing injuries, and authorities identified a 17-year-old student as the suspect.
The incident occurred in . Around 12:15 local time (05:15 GMT) inside the school complex where the mosque is located in Kelapa Gading, a district in the capital Jakarta.
The victims, most of whom were students, suffered various injuries, including severe burns. The suspect was also injured, according to Indonesian police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo.
“An investigation into the incident is ongoing, including how the suspects assembled and carried out the attack,” he added.
A bomb disposal team was deployed to the state-run high school complex following the blast to collect evidence and ensure there were no other explosive devices.
A student at the school told Indonesian state news agency Antara that the home-made bomb was brought by a student who was often bullied by other students.
Other students told Indonesian news outlets that the suspect was a “loner” who often drew pictures depicting violence and was found lying on the ground after the explosion.
A cook at the school described seeing white smoke coming from the mosque and broken windows after the “massive” explosion.
“Our hearts were racing and we couldn’t breathe,” she told Reuters.
A senior Jakarta police official confirmed the presence of two objects similar to firearms at the scene.
According to Antara’s images, one of the objects appeared to be a submachine gun and the other appeared to be a handgun.
The submachine gun-shaped object appears to have the following engraved on its barrel: “14 words. For Agartha.”
The body reads “Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell.”
Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 shooting at a mosque and Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead and dozens injured.
A minister who visited the scene late on Friday sought to dispel any doubts that there were weapons at the scene, telling CNN Indonesia that the photos “turned out to be toy guns and not real guns.”
Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus also urged the public not to assume the explosion was a “terrorist act” as investigators were still examining the scene.
Another object found at the scene was a dark green belt containing bullets.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.
