Indonesia church attack: would-be suicide bomber with backpack full of explosives injures priest with an axe

Church attack: People carry an unconscious friend to an ambulance in front of a church after a would-be suicide bomber failed to detonate explosives during Sunday service in Medan, North Sumatra
AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara
Hannah Al-Othman28 August 2016

A teenage would-be suicide bomber has attacked a church in Indonesia during Sunday Mass, injuring a priest with an axe before being restrained, police said.

The 18-year-old assailant left a bench and ran toward the priest at the altar, but a bomb in his backpack failed to detonate, said national police spokesman Maj. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar.

The man managed to take an axe from his rucksack, which only burned without exploding, and attacked the Rev. Albert Pandiangan, causing a slight injury to the 60-year-old priest's hand, Amar said.

The teenager was restrained by members of the congregation until police arrived.

Officers said the motive for the attack at the Roman Catholic St. Yoseph Church in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, was not clear, but the perpetrator carried a symbol indicating support for the Islamic State group.

Bombing attempt: An Indonesian plainclothes policeman detains a terrorist suspect
EPA/DEDI SINUHAJI

Police were interrogating the man, who told them he was not working alone, but did not provide details of any accomplices.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on militant networks since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

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