Police questioning witnesses in ‘firecracker’ explosion near presidential debate venue

The Jakarta Metro Police are questioning witnesses related to a small explosion near the presidential debate venue yesterday evening, which, according to some reports, injured at least two.

The explosion, as seen in the CCTV footage below, occurred at around 8 pm yesterday — around the same time the presidential debate between President Joko Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto began. Police say the explosion took place at Parkir Timur Senayan (Senayan East parking lot), 100 meters from where a group of Jokowi supporters had set up a community screening of the debate and within several minutes’ drive to the Sultan Hotel, where the debate was held.

Based on their initial investigation, the Jakarta Metro Police believe the explosion was caused by a firecracker, not a bomb. The police have begun questioning witnesses, though they mostly did not delve into the witnesses’ political affiliations.

“With an inductive method we have questioned 10 witnesses who were around the scene [of the explosion at the time],” Jakarta Metro Police Spokesperson Argo Yuwono said today, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

“We have questioned [among them] one volunteer for 01 (the designated number given to President Jokowi’s ticket).”

Argo added that the CCTV footage is still being studied to determine whether or not the suspected firecracker was thrown or placed at the site of its explosion, which could in turn determine if it was an act of intimidation against a particular set of supporters or not.

The police initially said there were no victims from the explosion, but Jokowi’s campaign said two of its volunteers had to be rushed to hospital, one of whom was placed in intensive care. That information was corroborated by Mintohardjo Navy Hospital administrator Doctor Wiweka, who said today that the two victims are currently in inpatient care.

“[They suffered] psychological traumas from the explosion, and one had headaches, vomited and fainted while the other [suffered from] the noise [of the explosion],” he said, as quoted by Merdeka.