January 05, 2012


A suspicious package raised alarm at the Virgin Mary Cathedral in Bogor, with a bomb squad from the police’s Mobile Brigade unit deployed early on Wednesday.

The police bomb squad blew up the package in a controlled blast but found that it only contained a ticking clock, earlier thought to be a bomb’s timing device.

Witnesses reported that the package was delivered by a man who left it at the church door at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Police are pursuing the mysterious sender, described as in his 30s, 165 centimeters tall and short-haired.

The package caused a panic on Wednesday, when members of the congregation were supposed to celebrate church bishop Michael Cosmos Angkur’s 75th birthday.

The cathedral, built during the Dutch colonial era in 1881, is one of the oldest churches in Bogor. It is situated across from the city’s Legislative Council office and adjacent to the Bogor Presidential Palace. 


(according to the JG)