Part of the intersection reopened to traffic and many curious onlookers at 4.30pm local time, with police declaring the situation safe.
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A spokesperson for the Indonesian National Police who was cited by The New York Times said the agency received messages from ISIS in November warning of an attack in the region.
He said the attackers imitated the recent “terror acts” in Paris and were likely from the Islamic State group, but gave no evidence. Five police officers and five civilians also were wounded, he added, saying that police had recovered five bombs in the area of the attacks.
Conflicting information emerged in the aftermath of the attacks, with some officials putting the number of dead as high as six. Before that, a bombing in a nightclub on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
The explosions in front of the coffee shop injured several people, and the blast at the police post severely injured some policemen and killed the attackers, according to a policeman at the scene.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called on his country not to be defeated by “these acts of terror”.
An Indonesian who attempted to help the hostages was also killed, police said, while at least 20 people, including the other hostage, were injured.
He said at least one attacker, or perhaps two, fled afterwards on a motorbike.
Previously it was admitted by the National Police’s deputy chief, Com Gen Budi Ganawan that there is an IS support group in Solo, central Java, who had been in contact with Bahrun Naim in Syria.
Gen. Anton Charliyan said security is focused on anticipating attacks in vulnerable regions, including Jakarta.
1108 – A Reuters eyewitness said three people died and there was a gunfight. The attackers targeted an area near a Starbucks cafe and Sarinah’s, Jakarta’s oldest department store.
He says the other two attackers, carrying handguns, entered a police post from where he heard gunfire. There were six explosions, local TV reported.
At least one explosion was filmed outside the Starbucks cafe, which had its windows blown out.
The United States Embassy in Jakarta issued an emergency message, on Thursday urging Americans in Indonesia to avoid the area around Sari Pan Pacific Hotel and Sarinah Plaza in downtown Jakarta. The other set of explosions were in neighbourhoods where the embassies of Turkey and Pakistan are located.
Julianti who had just arrived at work and was changing into her uniform when the first explosion went off, said: “The building was shaking heavily when the blast happened”.
“Chaos & we’re going into lock-down”, he said on Twitter. And three minutes later: “Apparent #suicidebomber literally 100m from the office and my hotel”.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has suffered a spate of deadly attacks blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah network in the past.
Police and military officials said they have been conducting series of operations to contain the movement and cripple the operational capability of terror groups.
The five attackers struck on Thursday in the central district of the Indonesian capital.
Police snipers were deployed among hundreds of other security officers.
Police snipers were deployed, according to media. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.
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Like Isis, Jemaah Islamiyah, also aims to establish an Islamic “caliphate” in south-east Asian countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
