Woman killed after pointing gun at Indonesia police officers

A woman has been shot dead by police after she entered the Indonesian National Police Headquarters in Jakarta and pointed a gun at several officers, in the latest in a series of militant attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Television video on Wednesday showed an unidentified woman wearing a long black robe and a blue veil walking near a parking lot at the police headquarters toward the police chief’s office building. 

She pointed a gun at several police officers before being shot dead by other officers.

An anti-bomb squad member approached her body, which was lying in the rain with the gun nearby, and determined there were no dangerous materials in the area before the body was removed.

There was no immediate statement from police about the incident.

Church bombing 

The exchange at the police headquarters in downtown capital comes days after two suicide bombers attacked a cathedral in the city of Makssar on Sulawesi island, injuring 20 people.

The newlywed couple who attacked the church belonged to pro-Daesh extremist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), police have said, warning of more possible attacks.

Sunday's explosion at the main Catholic cathedral in Makassar took place just after congregants finished celebrating Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus's entry into Jerusalem.

Police outposts have been frequent targets of Indonesian extremists in the past.

READ MORE: Suicide bombers target church in Indonesia

Past militant attacks

The world's most populous Muslim-majority country has long struggled with militancy and has suffered a number of devastating attacks in the past two decades.

The 2002 Bali bombings were the country's worst-ever terror attack, killing more than 200 people, mainly foreign tourists.

Indonesia's security forces regularly arrest suspected militants and attacks have often been low-level and have targeted domestic security forces.

Before Sunday, one of the country's last major deadly attacks was in 2018, when a dozen people were killed after a family of suicide bombers blew themselves up at churches during Sunday services in Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya.

The family - including two daughters, aged nine and 12 - and another family of five, which carried out the suicide bombing of a police headquarters, all belonged to the same Koran study group and were linked to JAD, which has pledged allegiance to Daesh.

Formed in 2015, JAD gained notoriety the following year for a gun and suicide bomb attack in the capital Jakarta that killed four civilians and four attackers, including one who blew himself up at a Starbucks outlet.

It was the first attack claimed by Daesh in Southeast Asia.

JAD was also implicated in a 2019 cathedral suicide bombing in the Philippines committed by a married Indonesian couple which killed worshippers and security forces.

READ MORE: Will an Indonesian cleric's release 'renew hope' for extremism?