One student dies in machete attack

One student dies in machete attack

JAKARTA (JP): A senior high school student died after being
attacked by other students in front of the Saidah Tower building
on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta on Saturday.

Leo Andriana, a student at senior technical high school STM 3
Jakarta, died after sustaining severe injuries to his back.

The incident occurred around 10 a.m, as the 18-year-old
student walked with scores of his friends to an empty plot of
land located in Cawang Bawah area in East Jakarta.

The students of the technical high school were about to play
soccer on the empty plot, some two kilometers from their school.

When they reached the street in front of the tower, dozens of
students from a different school alighted from a PPD bus and
chased away the walking students.

The students who were on the bus are believed to be from
senior technical high school STM 71 in the Halim area, East
Jakarta.

Aware that they were outnumbered, Leo and his friends began to
run away from the scene.

Leo stumbled and fell facedown, while his friends continued to
flee.

The angry opponents kicked, hit and slashed Leo with machetes.

Leo was severely injured in the attack, with his back and
buttocks taking the impact of the attack.

The attacking students left the scene after they finished with
Leo.

Passersby took Leo to private Tebet Hospital, but he died an
hour later.

None of the students who were involved in the attack have been
arrested.

The South Jakarta Police said they had yet to receive a report
on the incident.

"We have yet to obtain detailed information about the
incident," Capt. Achmad Ali, head of detectives at the police
station told The Jakarta Post by phone on Saturday evening.

The area has repeatedly seen student brawls lately, sometimes
it causes traffic jams, he said.

Cipinang

Separately, another brawl occurred on Saturday on Jl. Ngurah
Rai in Cipinang, East Jakarta.

A street vendor operating in front of the Yayasan Kesehatan
Republik Indonesia building, where the brawl occurred, said the
melee involved two groups of unidentified people.

The two warring groups, approximately 50 people in all, pelted
stones at each other on the street, terrifying passersby.

The brawl occurred for several minutes, but caused a traffic
jam in the area, a duty police officer at the East Jakarta Police
station said.

He said a few minutes later, dozens of Mobile Brigade police
arrived at the scene and dispersed the warring groups.

Stones were still scattered along the street on Saturday
evening, but traffic flow had improved.

The reason for the brawl remains a mystery and there was no
information available on whether the incident claimed any
casualties. (ylt/asa)