It could have been a tragedy like that of Rouen, France, this Sunday, in Indonesia, where, in the Church of Saint Joseph in the North Sumatran capital of Medan, entered a knife-wielding fanatic during Sunday Mass, trying to harm the priest and all faithful present.
According to local sources, this was an attempted terrorist attack, intending to detonate a bomb in the crowded church, but there are no casualties.
According to witnesses, the bomber was sitting among the faithful when he attempted to set off a homemade explosive device, which exploded in his backpack, but only burned without setting off the explosives. Wounded, he still managed to rush toward 60-year-old, Father Albert Pandianga, to wound him with his knife.
The police evacuated the church and secured the area. In the young man’s backpack, materials with the logo of the Islamic State were found.
Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world in terms of its great number of believers. The majority of its people practice a moderate Islam, but in recent years, there has been an emergence of fundamentalist groups which have perpetrated terrorist attacks, the most serious of which, was the massacre in Bali in 2002, which killed 202 people.
