A would-be suicide bomber’s explosives failed to detonate in a packed Catholic church in western Indonesia during Sunday Mass, and he injured a priest with an axe before being restrained, police said.
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Witnesses report that the assailant rushed at the altar carrying a backpack that contained an explosive device.
According to local publication Tempo, the Southeast Asian nation’s top security minister, Wiranto, said the attacker was a “lone wolf” and not affiliated with any particular group. Notably, there were several attacks on the minorities in Indonesia, in the past.
A search of his rented room turned up copper cables, gunpowder and light bulbs, materials that could be used to assemble simple bombs.
As for the priest, he has sustained slight injuries and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
But the incident at the church in Medan, Indonesia’s third-largest city, marks the second Islamic State-inspired attack in the country this year.
First and foremost, police have to find and capture the people who reportedly ordered the suspect, who will only turn 18 in October, to commit the attack.
Ring Sari Ginting, a spokeswoman for Medan police, said: “A terrorism act was carried out on Sunday morning at the Saint Joseph catholic church”.
One churchgoer, who gave her name as Vero, told national newspaper the “Jakarta Post” that the attacker had been sitting beside her during the service.
Earlier this year in January, a shootout and bomb attack took place in the capital of Jakarta, killing eight people, including four IS-linked insurgents.
An eyewitness said the assailant was seen fiddling in his bag, which produced a small explosion, before he ran towards the priest.
Police found an ISIS picture in the man’s possession.
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The police is now interrogating IAH pertaining to the terror act launched towards a priest of the Saint Joseph Church.
