When the area was finally secured a few hours later, bodies were sprawled on sidewalks.
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But earlier, the police said the series of explosions in the area included blasts triggered by four suicide bombers.
Before Christmas, and acting on intelligence from Australia and the US, Indonesian authorities disrupted a network planning ISIS-inspired attacks on police and New Year celebrations.
Kompas.com. reported Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti as saying that police believed others from a Daesh-linked group had helped out. Five assailants also died in the attacks, for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility. He said the extremists counted as only a small group.
Police believed he had planned the attack in the Indonesian capital.
“We condemn these attacks that have disturbed our society”.
The statement could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, though it resembled previous claims made by the group, which controls territory in both Iraq and Syria.
National Police spokesman Maj. He said three civilians were killed.
A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said a Dutch man had been seriously injured and was undergoing surgery.
The assault ended when two of the attackers were killed in a suicide bombing, said police, with the other three killed in gun battles.
Even as the terror unfolded on the streets of Jakarta, there was confusion about who the attackers were and how many were killed, Jakarta Globe reported.
In December nine suspected terrorists were arrested with bomb-making materials, a map of Jakarta and plans to “do a concert”, presumably a code phrase for an attack. “But thank God it didn’t happen”, Charilyan said.
The Islamic State (IS) militant group has said it was behind the attack.
Jakarta Police Chief Tito Karnavian revealed the attackers were linked to IS in Raqqa, Syria, in particular an Indonesian named Bahrun Naim.
A day after the terrorist attack that left seven people dead – including the attackers themselves – Indonesian authorities are still on high alert amid fears of another such incident. A large auto bomb killed more than 200 on the resort island of Bali in 2002.
However, they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude.
“I’ll still live here but I think going certain places, I do think about that”.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has condemned the attacks, urging Indonesians to remain calm.
A United Nations regional representative in Jakarta, Jeremy Douglas, tweeted that the massive explosion in front of the United Nations office in the Indonesian capital was followed by at six other blasts and gunfire.
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Later, police said they suspected two of the attackers killed Thursday had been imprisoned previously for radical acts.
