From The New York Times:
An explosion shook a Roman Catholic cathedral compound in the eastern Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday morning, shattering the calm of Palm Sunday, a holy day for Christians.
No churchgoers were killed, but at least 19 people were being treated for injuries at Makassar hospitals, a regional police spokesman said. The blast was still being investigated, but President Joko Widodo said it was an act of terrorism.
The explosion took place around 10:20 a.m. at the gate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral compound, said Inspector General Raden Prabowo Argo Yuwono, a spokesman for the Indonesian National Police.
Shortly before the blast, Mr. Argo said, two people on a motorcycle were stopped by church security personnel, who feared that they were trying to target the cathedral just as Mass was ending.
Video from the site, taken soon after the explosion, showed smoldering wreckage and palm fronds scattered on the ground.
Body parts recovered from the blast site were of a man and a woman who were presumed to be the bombers, said Kombes E. Zulfan, the spokesman for the regional police.
Father Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the cathedral, told Metro TV, an Indonesian network, that a parking attendant had been burned as he tried to stop the two people on the motorcycle, who he said looked suspicious.
CNA adds:
The BBC said that the bombing happened at the cathedral’s side entrance.
It quoted Makassar Mayor Danny Pomanto as saying that there would have been many more casualties if the attacker had struck at the main entrance.
Makassar is the fifth-largest urban center in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
A family of suicide bombers attacked three churches, including the Church of St. Mary Immaculate, in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, in May 2018.
