JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities said Friday they have identified a 17-year-old boy as the suspect in an attack that shook a mosque at a high school in the capital, Jakarta, injuring at least 54 people, mostly students.
Witnesses told local television stations that they heard at least two loud blasts around midday, just as the sermon had started at Friday prayers, from inside and outside the mosque at SMA 72, a state high school within a navy compound in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighborhood.
Students and others ran out in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque.
Police said they had recovered a toy submachine gun belonging to the suspect and inscribed with what appeared to be white supremacist slogans. However, they brushed away speculation that the blasts were a terror attack.
“The suspect is a 17-year-old male student” who was undergoing surgery, Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad told reporters after visiting victims at a hospital. He gave no more details.
National Police Chief Listyo Sigit said the suspect was one of two students having surgery for injuries from the blasts.
“Our personnel are currently conducting an in-depth investigation to determine the suspect’s identity and the environment where he lives, including his house and others,” Sigit told a news conference at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
References to C …