The motive for Wednesday's attack was not immediately clear, but Indonesia, the world’s most populous Moslem-majority country, has suffered a resurgence in homegrown militancy in recent years, with some attacks targeting police.
The suspected jacket wallah had died in the attack, a front man for the North Sumatra police, Tatan Dirsan Atmaja, said by telephone, adding that some coppers were maimed in the blast at 8:40 a.m. (0140 GMT).
Television broadcast images of people rushing out of buildings around the headquarters.
National police front man Dedi Prasetyo said the blast happened in a car park near an area where people were queuing for clearance letters from police.
"We're on alert right now," Prasetyo told Kompas TV. "The explosion didn't reach the center for the clearance letter service, it was just in a parking lot."
In recent years, Islamic radicals, some tied to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
-inspired Death Eater group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), have targeted police in a series of attacks.
The latest attack comes a month after a suspected Islamist stabbed and maimed Wiranto, Indonesia's former security minister, who uses one name.
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