Police bomb squad officers inspect the site of an explosion inside a school mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday. At least 54 people were injured in an explosion at a mosque inside a school compound during Friday prayers, according to the police. Photo by Mast Irham/EPA
Nov. 7 (UPI) — Explosions at a mosque on a high school campus in Jakarta, Indonesia, have injured at least 54 people, most of them students.
The injured have been taken to hospitals and have injuries that range from minor to serious, said Jakarta City Police Chief Asep Edi Suhaeri, the Independent reported.
Police have identified the alleged attacker as a 17-year-old student, who was also injured.
The explosions happened at 12:15 p.m. WID during Friday prayers.
Indonesia Police General Listyo Sigit Prabowo said an investigation is underway, “including how the suspect assembled and carried out the attack.”
One student told the Indonesian government-owned news agency Antara that a student brought in a homemade bomb. The boy had often been bullied by students, the BBC reported.
Other students told Indonesian news outlets that the boy had been a “loner” who often drew violent pictures. They said they saw him lying on the ground after the explosion happened.
Antara’s images appear to show objects that looked like guns, but Indonesian politician Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus said the photos depicted “a toy gun, not a real gun.”
On one of the alleged “toy guns,” it said, “14 words. For Agartha,” and, “Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell,” the BBC reported.
Tarrant is the attacker in the 2019 shooting at a New Zealand mosque that killed 51 people.
Paulus also told the public not to assume that the blast was a terrorist act because detectives were still investigating.