Multiple explosions shake mosque in Indonesian high school, injure 55

Multiple explosions shook a mosque at a high school during Friday (November 11, 2025) prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, injuring at least 55 people, mostly students. Police tried to dissuade speculation that the blasts were a terror attack and said they were investigating.

Witnesses told local television stations that they heard at least two loud blasts around midday, from inside and outside the mosque, just as the sermon had started at the mosque at SMA 27, a state high school within a navy compound in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighbourhood.

Students and others ran out in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque.

Most of the victims suffered minor to severe injuries from glass shards. The cause of the blasts was not immediately known but they came from near the mosque’s loudspeaker, according to Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri.

Indonesian military Combat Engineering Detachment (Denzipur) personnel carrying explosive detection equipment arrive after an explosion occurred at a school complex in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

People were rushed to nearby hospitals. Some were soon sent home, but 20 students remain in hospital care, three of them with serious injuries, the police chief said.

Mr. Suheri said an anti-bomb squad that was deployed at the scene found toy rifles and a toy gun near the mosque.

“Police are still investigating the scene to determine the cause of the blasts,” Mr. Suheri said, and urged against speculation that the incident was an attack before the police investigation is completed.

“Let the authorities work first,” Mr. Suheri said. “We will convey whatever the results are to the public.”

In subsequent years, there have been mostly smaller, less deadly strikes that have targeted foreigners, the government, police and anti-terrorism forces, as well as those considered infidels by militant groups.

In December 2022, a Muslim militant and convicted bomb-maker who was released from prison the previous year, blew himself up at a police station in West Java, killing an officer and wounding 11 people.

Since 2023, the Southeast Asian nation has experienced what authorities here call a “zero attack phenomenon,” crediting the government with the stable security situation.