Jakarta explosions: 4 attackers dead, including 2 suicide bombers

Two civilians were also confirmed dead, taking the total death toll to six

Four people suspected of being behind the gunfire and serial explosions in the Indonesian capital Jakarta today are dead, including two who were allegedly suicide bombers, police said.

Two civilians are also confirmed as having died, taking the total death toll in the attacks to six, Deputy National Police Chief Budi Gunawan told reporters.

Two attackers were killed in a shootout with police, while two others were suicide bombers, he said.

Of the two recent civilian deaths, one was a foreigner, Gunawan said.

Jakarta police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal added that five police personnel, one foreign civilian and four Indonesian civilians were injured, he said.

Witnesses said at least one gunman had attacked a cafe in the city centre -- near a cluster of embassies -- shooting at bystanders, as a series of explosions rocked the area.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo condemned the attack, calling them 'acts of terror'.

A police spokesman had earlier said the perpetrators were on foot and on motorcycles, but he could not say how many of them there were.

Badly mangled bodies were seen lying on the streets as security forces moved in, with regular reports of gunfire and warnings of snipers in the area.

"Four people died, one police officer and three civilians," national police spokesman Anton Charliyan had said.

"For now the gunfire has stopped but they are still on the run, we are afraid there will be more gunshots."

A number of people were also feared injured in today's assault, with an eyewitness telling AFP he had seen a "terrorist" open fire on a local journalist.

Ruli Koestaman, 32, who had been in a meeting in a nearby building, said the attack started around 10:35 a.m (local time).

"Then I heard a loud bang, boom. It felt like an earthquake. We all went downstairs," he said.

"We then saw that the Starbucks downstairs was destroyed too. I saw a foreigner, Westerner, a man, with a mangled hand but alive."

"A Starbucks waiter then ran out with blood coming out of his ear. And I asked anyone hurt inside, he said yes, one. Dead already.

"Then everybody gathered and a terrorist appeared. He had a gun and started shooting at us and then at Starbucks. Then the police post... Exploded."

Koestaman said the attacker shot at a reporter who was at the scene.

"Police then started to shoot at the guy, who kept reloading his gun. And then there was another explosion. Then shootings."

The blasts -- at least six, according to eyewitnesses -- were close to a shopping centre, the Sarinah.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks.

The bombs come just weeks after Jakarta was placed on high alert after anti-terror police foiled what they said were plans for an New Year suicide attack in the Indonesian capital.

Late last month police said they had arrested two men, including a member of China's Uighur minority, who they claimed were involved in the plot.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

After a series of attacks on foreigners in the last decade, Indonesian extremists have in recent years directed their violence at domestic "enemies of Islam", mostly police.

A security crackdown weakened the most dangerous extremist networks, leading to a long lull in large-scale strikes. However, the emergence of Islamic State has raised concern that Indonesians returning from Middle East battlefields could stage attacks on home soil.