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At least 7 dead as bombs hit Jakarta

Thursday, 14 January 2016 4:07 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 14 January 2016 2:16 PM ]

People gather after an explosion in central Jakarta, Jan. 14, 2016.

Daesh-linked attackers strike at the heart of Jakarta, the capital of the most populated Muslim country, leaving at least seven people dead.

Police said five attackers and two civilians were killed and 19 others injured in the assault copying "the pattern of the Paris attacks."

The attackers detonated explosives and shot at people in a district packed with malls, embassies and UN offices and waged gunbattles with police.

A Daesh-allied news agency said the Takfiri group carried out the attack, "targeting foreign nationals and security forces."

Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters Daesh "is behind this attack definitely," and Indonesian President Joko Widodo called the blasts "acts of terror."

Widodo said he had ordered a hunt-down and capture of the perpetrators and those in their network.

The attack followed several warnings in recent weeks by police that Daesh militants were planning something big.

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

After five hours, police declared the area near the Sarinah shopping mall secure secure.

It was the first major attack in Indonesia's capital since the 2009 bombings of two hotels that killed seven people and injured more than 50.

Before that, bombings at nightclubs on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Indonesia has been on alert over the threat of attacks by Takfiri groups and police have launched a crackdown on people with suspected links to the extremists.

About 150,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed during New Year's Eve to guard churches, airports and other public places.

More than 9,000 police were also deployed in Bali.