Indonesia on high alert after yet another attack, this time on Pekanbaru police

FOUR men, suspected to be terrorists, have been shot dead after an attempt was made to attack a police station on the Indonesian island of Sumatra today using machetes.

One police officer is believed to have died in the attack at the Riau police headquarters in Pekanbaru and several journalists, who were at the police station for an unrelated press conference, were injured. Two other police officers were also injured.

A fifth suspected terrorist has been arrested, after earlier reports stated another person was on the run after the attack.

The attack comes as police conduct a massive crackdown on militants who have taken to using children as suicide bombers.

It is understood the car containing the terrorists sped into the police station and the men were wielding machetes which they used to attack police. It is understood they had no bombs.

One police officer, who was hit by the car, died in the attack and the four men were shot dead.

Images from the scene show one of them lying dead on the ground with a long bladed machete in his hand.

“Three officers were injured and one later died in hospital,” said local police chief Nandang, who goes by one name, AFP reported.

Graphic pictures of the dead suspected terrorists who attacked Pekanbaru police station began appearing on social media shortly after news of the incident broke.

Pekanbaru police station is located in Riau province in the centre of Sumatra.

Indonesian National police spokesman, Setyo Wasisto, said that around 9am local time (12pm AEST) an Avanza car drove into Riau police headquarters in Pekanbaru.

“Several police tried to stop the car. Then four people jumped from the car and attacked police with sharp weapons. It has caused two police to be injured. The four were shot dead,” Mr Wasisto said.

“One person tried to escape with the car and hit a police member who has died. He also hit a journalist who has been injured. The journalist is from TV One, Rian Rahman.”

Police have seized three machetes, five face coverings, three pairs of shoes, a damaged handycam, a jacket and watch, he said.

“This is the success of Riau police in foiling this attack from a group of unknown people,” Mr Wasisto said.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was monitoring the situation closely.

DFAT advice to Australians travelling to Indonesia remains at level two of four at this stage, recommending travellers ‘exercise a high degree of caution’ when they visit the country.

Earlier today, Ms Bishop said if she had a trip planned to Bali at the moment she would still go.

But the Minister urged Australians travelling to Indonesia to check the latest alerts on the Smart Traveller website.

“We encourage people to take responsibility for their own safety. There is a lot of advice set out in the Smart Traveller travel warning and I do urge anyone seeking to travel to Indonesia to read it,” she said.

“People should take care not to be in places where there might be terrorist attacks, to read the advice, to take notice of what local authorities say and to register (with DFAT via Smartraveller) so the Australian missions overseas know they’re in country.”

INDONESIA UNDER ATTACK
The latest attack comes after 18 people died on Sunday at three different churches in Surabaya, including the six family members who executed the attacks. Another 41 people were injured in the blasts.

The family of attackers, which included two daughters aged 9 and 12, split up across separate locations, with the bombings happening within minutes of each other.

Police chief General Tito Karnavian said the father detonated a car bomb, two sons aged 18 and 16 used a motorcycle for their attack, and the mother and her two daughters wore explosives.

A matter of hours after the church attacks, three people in one family were killed in an accidental explosion at an apartment in Sidoarjo, not far from Surabaya. It is believed they were making bombs for another attack.

There were further attacks on Monday, when a family riding two motorbikes detonated a bomb at a security checkpoint at the Surabaya police headquarters in East Java.

Four of the family members were killed in the blast, while an eight-year-old girl, who was a passenger on one of the bikes, was injured and taken to hospital.

It has since been revealed that the wave of attacks were linked.

Indonesian police chief General Tito Karnavian said that at a local level the attacks appeared to be revenge for the continued detention and trial of Indonesian terrorist leader, Aman Abdurahman, who is currently before the courts for inspiring the January 2016 attack on a Starbucks café in Jakarta.

The attacks, which have been condemned around the world, are the first time in Indonesia that young children have been shockingly used as suicide bombers in a worrying new trend.

“Using children, this is the first time in Indonesia. A nine-year-old and a 12-year-old kid with a bomb on their waist and then committing suicide,” General Karnavian said, adding this was something frequently done in Syria but never on home soil.

Police have said that the attackers are all members and supporters of Indonesian terror group, Jemaah Ansharut Daulah or JAD, which was formed in 2015 and according to the US State Department is made up of about 24 Indonesian extremist groups who have pledged allegiance to the IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

General Karnavian said the orders for the bombings came from Islamic State central and that pipe bombs were used, made from a chemical called triacetone triperoxide or TATP, a high explosive used in Iraq and Syria where it is called the “Mother of Satan” because of its volatility and ability to cause mass carnage.

The latest wave of Surabaya attacks came just days after a deadly 36-hour standoff in a high-security Jakarta prison housing terrorist inmates, in which five specialist counterterrorist police were killed, along with other terror suspect.