Gun-wielding woman detained outside the Indonesian presidential palace

• Indonesian authorities detain lady in possession of a gun outside Jakarta’s presidential palace.
• She was carrying a Quran and brandishing a rifle close to the palace, an official said.
• The woman was also wearing a niqab.

Media sources state that Indonesian authorities detained a lady in possession of a gun outside Jakarta’s presidential palace when President Joko Widodo was not present.

The woman was detained at around 7am (00:00 GMT) on Tuesday, according to presidential official Ali Mochtar Ngabalin, who also claimed that she had not entered the palace grounds.

The woman, who looked to be in her twenties, was carrying a Quran and brandishing a rifle close to the palace, according to him. She was also wearing a niqab, a veil that some Muslim women wear to conceal their hair and bottom half of their faces.

According to a police official quoted in the Beritasatu daily, the woman had moved straight at the security guards while pointing a FN weapon in their direction.

The woman was being questioned, according to a Jakarta police official, though it was not immediately clear why or how she had obtained the firearm.

The largest Muslim-majority nation in the world, Indonesia, has previously been subject to armed group attacks, some of which have targeted law enforcement and government employees.

On March 31, 2014, a woman opened fire on police at the national police headquarters in Jakarta in an incident motivated by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

Police shot and killed the lady.

At the time, Indonesian police were already on high alert following a suicide bombing on Sulawesi Island three days earlier that left at least 20 people injured during Palm Sunday Mass at a Catholic cathedral.

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