Second family hits Indonesian city with suicide attack

A SECOND family of suicide bombers has struck the Indonesian city of Surabaya, a day after a couple and their four children attacked three churches, killing 14 people.

Footage caught on a CCTV camera shows the moment the bomb was detonated as two motorcycles carrying a family of five approached a checkpoint at the entrance to the city’s police headquarters yesterday, injuring officers and damaging a car.

The police said an eight-year-old girl from the family survived, but her mother, father and two brothers died. Four officers and six civilians were wounded in the attack.

“We hope the child will recover,” said East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera. “We believe she was thrown three metres or so up into the air by the impact of the explosion and then fell to the ground.”

President Joko Widodo said the attack in Surabaya was the “act of cowards”, and pledged to push through a new anti-terrorism bill to combat Islamist militant networks.

The blast appeared to be a copycat of a series of devastating bombings at three churches in Surabaya on Sunday morning, in which a mother and father used their young children as cover to murder worshippers.

Isil claimed responsibility for the attack, as with Sunday’s bombings, although there is no evidence that they coordinated the attack from outside the country. The bombings have revived fears about radicalisation in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.