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Jakarta Business District Rocked by Multiple Blasts; Attack on Indonesian Capitol; Asian Markets Slide Further into Negative Territory; 4 Jakarta Suspects Shot. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 14, 2016 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, we'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm John Vause. We begin this hour in Jakarta, Indonesia where a series of explosions in the city has left at least four people dead including one police officer. But there are reports that death toll could in fact be higher.

SESAY: And CNN Indonesia reports that the police station appears to have been the target of the attacks. Police say a number of grenades were used in the incidents. Authorities were in pursuit of at least one attacker who escaped from the scene and is probably armed.

VAUSE: There have so far been no claims of responsibility and police have not named any suspects.

Indonesia has been on high alert in recent weeks with the police and military joint operations focused on hitting the East Mujahadeen which has pledged support for ISIS.

CNN's Kathy Quiano joins us now on the line from Jakarta.

Kathy, last time we spoke, you were outside the Skyline building not far from where these attacks took place, where one of the gunmen, at least one, maybe more, was believed to be holed up. And when we spoke last you said it appeared that the police were preparing to go in.

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): That's right, John. We actually saw several dozens of them, fully armed, go into the building. We're seeing -- as you're seeing now, men in civilian clothes also entering the building.

The situation is quite tense around this area. It's been cordoned off. You see Thamrin across the street by the side of the building where the U.N. offices are, many bystanders watching from afar. But we're being kept quite far away from this. And from what I'm seeing, though, this is an operation that's definitely going on here. The police have surrounded the skyline building and this is right now an operation going on for sure -- John.

VAUSE: And just for our viewers who may be joining us, Kathy, let's just recap exactly what we have learned over the last hour or so from police in terms of the targets here, what was used by these attackers. And what exactly the police have been telling us.

QUIANO: John, earlier we -- the national police spokesman spoke to reporters just outside the Sarinah Building where the -- fronting the police station that was a target, and you said that there were four people who were killed. One of them a policeman, and three civilians, but he could not confirm if the civilians were innocent bystanders or were actually attackers who lobbed grenades at the police station earlier today.

He said that they were on motorbikes as well, although earlier witness accounts said that the men had walked towards the police station and then threw the grenades at the policemen, killing one of them there.

There was also an exchange of gunfire, and there was at least one armed suspect who escaped from the scene and fled into the skyline building, which is just across. The police station -- it was an intersection, a very busy intersection. You have office buildings around it and commercial establishments around here.

Everything is on lockdown now. There are reports that people are still in the offices in the buildings surrounding this area, and we are seeing as of this moment, a police operation that's still going on -- John.

SESAY: Kathy, the death toll you just gave us of four, which you received from the Indonesian police spokesman, do we have any more details as to whether those numbers include the attackers? Were the attackers killed in what took place today?

QUIANO: The police spokesman said that he could not confirm that. He said that they are still unable to identify the civilian victims. So he would not confirm that. He also said that it was still unclear who was responsible for this attack. Certainly no one has claimed responsibility for it, although there's also a lot of speculation you can hear from -- in social media now, people who are claiming to know of the attack, but again, that's all unconfirmed right now.

VAUSE: Yes.

QUIANO: And all we can say for sure is what the police told us earlier that four people including three civilians died in the attack -- Isha.

VAUSE: Kathy, just -- Kathy, just explain to us exactly where you are right now, not far from the Skyline building, in relation to the Starbucks, which was hit in one of these explosions and also the building which houses the United Nations. So can you sort of put that all in perspective for us.

QUIANO: Sure, John. I said that it's an intersection, I've actually gone closer now.

[01:05:04] I'm right beside. There's also a McDonald's, which is quite popular. It's 24 hours. It's open 24 hours. Really crowded all the time. So this McDonald's is right across from the police outpost which is at the center of the street, at the intersection. And you have the U.N. offices -- the office building that houses the U.N. is right across it. You also have a department store where I'm at now, where the McDonald's is located.

So, you know, just imagine how busy this area is. It's also a main thoroughfare and it's very close to government offices, embassies. And commercial buildings -- John.

VAUSE: OK, Kathy, we would like you to stay with us, but in the meantime, we have Bob Baer, our security analyst joining us now from Telluride, Colorado.

So, Bob, no one's saying it, certainly not officially at this point, that this could be ISIS, either ISIS-directed or ISIS-inspired. If you look at how this is carried out, maybe as many as 14 attackers involved, certainly four being confirmed by police. What's your take?

ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: John, I think it looks like ISIS right now. Of course maybe the Indonesians don't know. No, there's been no claim so far, but it looks like the Paris attack, in multiple teams, explosions, weapons. And you have to keep in mind that the Indonesians have fairly well closed down the old terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and al Qaeda have been crushed in that country.

And the Indonesian radicals and Salafis have moved toward the Islamic State. And they've gone to Syria and they've gone to Iraq where they've got training. A lot of them died there. On the other hand a lot of them are coming home. Right now, you know, my guess is it's the Islamic State.

SESAY: Bob, as you mentioned Indonesians are joining ISIS or at least leaving to work with them, to fight with them. How good is Indonesian intelligence in light of that? I mean, how good a handle do they have on the situation?

BAER: They're good locally. But, you know, as far as Syria and Iraq go, they have no intelligence resources there. They can't keep track of that. They sort of depend on the United States to give them good intelligence. You know, locally, they have some problems. But, you know, these groups -- they are underground groups and they're very difficult to get all of them. We have to remember that Islamic State affiliates are expanding very quickly all over the world.

Whether it's Libya or Indonesia or Tunisia, they're just not going away. This virus is getting stronger rather than getting weaker, in spite of the fall of Ramadi and losing a lot of territory in Iraq.

VAUSE: Bob, in Indonesia, which, you know, is a fairly tough place to be, the military has a fairly good handle on the country. Where would someone get grenades and automatic weapons?

BAER: There's always smugglers who bring this in. You know --

VAUSE: Is it difficult? BAER: No, it's not difficult. If you're well-organized and you have

money and you have true believers, you can always get weapons. And it doesn't matter what part of the world. I mean, I just -- I can't imagine some place where you couldn't get them. And especially these people are so determined and they do have a lot of money and they do have a lot of sympathizers. We just have to admit it.

You know, we look at the Islamic State as a cult, but there is a deep sense that these people are fighting a cause that's worthwhile. They may not agree with all the tactics, but that's the only way these affiliates can grow. I mean, you look at Afghanistan, where people are leaving the Taliban for the Islamic State. I mean, I never thought that would happen, and it's happening right now, and it's picking up strength.

VAUSE: Bob, just a couple of days ago, there was that suicide bombing in Istanbul, in a tourist area, 10 Germans killed, confirmed by the German government now. So obviously tourists were targeted there. And again in downtown Jakarta, an area with luxury hotels, a Starbucks, a McDonald's, embassies. Clearly there appears to be a pattern here, right?

BAER: Exactly. And the Turkish police are very good. I've worked with them before. They're extraordinary. But they can't keep track of all the people coming across the border, and they can't keep track of weapons as well.

And you know, it's not like in Turkey you can buy an automatic weapon over the counter. They have to be smuggled in. And the police, as I said, are very, very good. They still can get explosives in, they can still get weapons in. And the tactics here, or the strategy, I should say, of the Islamic State is to disrupt as many countries as they can. And they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.

[01:10:05] SESAY: Bob, as you talk about the ease of which one can pass through the borders of Indonesia, or at least smuggle things through Indonesia's borders, let me ask you about regional cooperation between Indonesia and its neighbors. How good is that when it comes to fighting this terror threat?

BAER: It's very good. But they're still blindsided. I mean, you know, Isha, we have to go back and we have to look at the Islamic State. They're true believers. And what the Indonesian police really need are sources inside this group. They need sources in Raqqa. But they don't have them. It's impossible to recruit a decent source. And with the Islamic State getting better at understanding or intercept capabilities, they're just simply going off the air and they're using couriers, they're using encryption and the rest of it.

And it gets more and more difficult to track them. We ran al Qaeda down thanks to intercepts, but these people have learned a lot from that.

VAUSE: OK, Bob. Thank you, Bob Baer, former CIA operative and our security and intelligence analyst there giving us some insight from Telluride, Colorado. SESAY: Thanks, Bob.

VAUSE: Thanks for staying up for this Bob. Appreciate it.

Let's go to Christian Hubel, he's a witness to the attack. He's a chief representative officer for the Leverate Media Asia. He joins us on the phone.

So, Christian, just explain to us exactly how close have you been to this scene, and what has been going on. What have you seen over the last couple of hours?

CHRISTIAN HUBEL, LEVERATE MEDIA ASIA: Hey, yes, we are working here at the plaza Indonesia, a very central office in central Jakarta. And just 500 meters away from our office, so we are on level 20 so we can see really a lot of the city. And 500 meters away, we just saw like a really huge smoke and like a -- what sounded like an explosion. And we were wondering what it is because at first we thought it's like from the construction site which is next to our building. But then it turns out it was on the street, like near a Starbucks coffee or something like that, or police station.

And then there was another explosion, another explosion like five or six explosions or gun shots, which was really weird. And we realized, OK, there's something going on. And, yes, it's really strange because our building is now completely locked down. So we cannot enter. We cannot leave the building. And -- but so far, everything is safe here. We just have to -- it probably will take a few hours, I guess. But yes, I don't know what happened. So nobody knows here what's going on.

SESAY: Christian, I don't know whether you've been told, I would imagine, to stay away from the windows. But let me still ask you, what can you tell us about the scene playing out, outside right now?

HUBEL: It looks like the whole street and the whole location is still locked down. So probably there is maybe another terrorist or something like that in there. I don't know. But it looks like nobody's moving, and it's a huge area like 100 or 200 meters around the whole area, nobody (INAUDIBLE). And all the police and a lot of the rescue cars are parked there, but nobody's moving. So it's still -- it looks like probably it's still going on, still not over yet.

VAUSE: Christian, you say you heard five or six blasts initially. Have you heard any explosions since? Because there are some reports that there has been another explosion in the last 10 or 15 minutes, not far from where you are.

HUBEL: We -- I, to be honest, did not hear anything, except what starting like two hours ago or something. But some friends -- I mean, we're texting with our friends all the time. And they also tell where they are and that they're safe. A lot of rumors are going on, there are more explosions in the city, but then it turned out it was just a fake and nobody knows what's really going on. So nobody knows if it's true or not. And --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Clearly everybody's --

HUBEL: We just saw this (INAUDIBLE) here.

VAUSE: Everybody is on edge, obviously. I'm just wondering, when you look out your window, what we're seeing from the images which are coming to us, is an incredible military presence there right now, with armored personnel carriers, armed soldiers and a lot of police. Can you see that from your vantage point?

HUBEL: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Can you describe that for us? How does it look to you?

HUBEL: Sorry?

VAUSE: How does it look to you from where you are?

HUBEL: Yes, looks really like a massive presence of police and military, and -- but, yes, as I said before, they're not moving to the scene. So it looks like they're still waiting for something or somebody. Maybe there's one or two persons still, I don't know, but it looks a little bit like that. And before the police, a lot of people were just in the first step, going to the scene. Like it was pretty crowded there, and then suddenly everybody run away.

[01:15:09] So something happened there, obviously, but we do not know any other like that -- any other anything else besides that.

SESAY: And Christian, you obviously you're hunkering in place, in your building right now. I mean, are there a lot of other people there with you? What is the situation where you are? Describe that for us.

HUBEL: Yes, we're sitting here with our own police, so I mean, a lot of local Indonesians are working with us. Of course they're also worried about their family and friends and check if they are safe or if they're home or something. And of course everybody's a little bit worried because nobody knows how long it will take, what's the next step. But, yes, we have no choice than to wait here because it's probably the safest place, not to be on the street at the moment.

VAUSE: Christian Hubel, thank you for being with us. Thank you for describing the scene and what you have heard over the last couple of hours there. One of many people now who are in a lockdown situation in downtown Jakarta, unable to leave their buildings. This is in the CBD of Jakarta.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: A very busy area. It was right in central downtown of the capital, where there are luxury hotels, a lot of office buildings, a lot of embassies, the U.N. headquarters, also on lockdown. We also have this word coming to us from the U.S. embassy in Jakarta telling U.S. citizens to shelter in place.

SESAY: To hunker in place .

VAUSE: Not to leave. Similar advice being put out to the Australian citizens in Jakarta as well. I imagine a lot of other embassies, too, are putting out similar advice to their foreign -- to their nationals who are in Indonesia's capital right now.

SESAY: And of course we are closely following the situation regarding the Skyline building. This is a building that as we understand it police have entered a short time ago in pursuit of a gunman, gunmen, again the numbers are very fluid here. But we know at least one armed individual is believed to have entered this multi-story building that actually used to house the old CNN bureau, I believe, as you have been telling me.

So now the situation is, they are inside. We don't know what is playing out. We know on the ground floor of this commercial building, there were commercial establishments. Again unclear whether the entire building had been evacuated while this operation is ongoing. But this is something we're watching very, very closely.

Our own Kathy Quiano is there in the vicinity, crouch down, watching it all unfold and of course we'll bring you details as they come into us.

We're going to take a very quick break. Do stay with us, we'll have much more on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:21:31] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Let's update you now on our breaking news out of Jakarta, Indonesia. Police say at least four people are dead, including one policeman in an explosion in the city center. It's one of several blasts that happened in the capital. No one has claimed responsibility at this point, but the suspicion is falling on ISIS.

VAUSE: A police spokesman says the attackers used grenades as they targeted a police station. A gunfight broke out between officers and the attackers. Right now police are surrounding a building as they search for the suspects in this attack.

CNN Indonesia reporter Alfito Deannova is in Jakarta, he joins us now with more on this.

Alfito, I believe you're there on the scene. Just tell us what is happening right now, in particular, with regards to the skyline building. Are police going in there at this point? Are they searching the building? Or is it more of a stand-off right now?

VAUSE: I think we may have lost the feed, unfortunately. SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Clearly some issues are going on there right now. But just to bring you up to date, we're also hearing word from Indonesia's President Widodo who was traveling actually. He was not in the capital at the time traveling in the business center of Java. He has cut that trip short obviously to return back now to the capital, but he is now saying that these attacks, these blasts are an act of terror. At the same time, urging Indonesians not to speculate on who may in fact be behind the attacks.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: As we said of course many people are now believing that possibly ISIS could be behind this, but there are a lot of other suspicious actors in this region.

SESAY: Indonesians.

VAUSE: That could be carrying this out.

SESAY: Yes, no strangers --

VAUSE: At this point, we just don't know. But our Bob Baer, our security analyst, said that, you know, the modus operandi, like the way it was carried out, a number of attackers, automatic weapons, explosives, looked a lot like the attacks which happened in Paris.

SESAY: Yes. And saying, you know, this is a group., ISIS, and its cohorts and affiliates and is growing rapidly and is growing stronger around the world. And so this is a threat now that faces us all. Indonesia right now in the spotlight, but again to make very, very clear, it has not been confirmed who's behind these attacks. No one has claimed responsibility. But as John just pointed out, we are hearing from Agence France-Presse agency they are now reporting that the Indonesian president is calling these Jakarta blast acts of terror.

We'll continue to follow the situation for you.

VAUSE: We spoke just a short time ago to Jeremy Douglas. He's with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He's in Jakarta. He heard a series of blasts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DOUGLAS, UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME: I was in the car when it first happened, and we got a call -- our driver got a call from our security, asking where we were, they said a bomb had gone off. But we were actually luckily pulling into the front of --- in the back of the building, excuse me. We pulled up and got out of the car. There was a little bit of chaos because people weren't quite sure what was going on.

And then a second bomb went off as we were getting out of the car. And we basically rushed into the building. Then a third bomb went off. We went up to our office on the tenth floor and now we're lockdown there on the tenth floor in our office building. And then a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth bomb went off. And then we heard small arms fire on the street in the front of the building.

VAUSE: And, Jeremy, I understand there's an internal note there from the U.N. saying at least one U.N. employee has been injured?

DOUGLAS: Yes, we're not -- there's a lot of information flying around. And I don't -- I'm not privy to that, but we've got -- one of my U.N. colleagues is rushing to find out what's happened and see if -- see what needs to be done. But --

VAUSE: Yes.

[01:25:02] DOUGLAS: So I can't confirm that at this time.

VAUSE: OK.

SESAY: And Jeremy, so just walk us through what your sense is of the situation at the scene now in terms of police response, in terms of just, you know, the situation on the ground right now.

DOUGLAS: Sure, sure. There's a mass of -- I'm looking out the window right now at a couple armored personnel carriers and tactical teams which are -- which cordoned off the area where the explosion happened. And at least what we're told is there's a gunman who's holed up in a small shopping arcade across the street shopping mall, where -- so they're keeping the corner locked down. So I can see probably about 40 police tactical or SWAT team type police right now.

VAUSE: So, Jeremy, paint a picture for us of this area of Jakarta. You know, I've been to Jakarta a few times.

DOUGLAS: Sure.

VAUSE: If I'm not mistaken, this is, you know, sort of an upmarket area of Jakarta. We understand that obviously the U.N. is there, a number of embassies are not far away. There are luxury hotels as well.

DOUGLAS: Yes.

VAUSE: We know there was a Starbucks, which appears to have been, you know, at least maybe targeted. I guess we don't know. But it was certainly damaged by the blast.

DOUGLAS: Yes, that's exactly right. You couldn't get much more central in Jakarta if you tried. It's basically right smack dab in the central business area, so you got major international hotel chains all over the place, you got the U.N., the Japanese embassy is down the street. So there's a big diplomatic and business community right here.

So if you wanted to make an impact, get visibility for what you're trying to do, this is the place to do it. In fact, that's why I came down -- I'm based in Bangkok, and I came down to talk to the government about exactly that. We're assisting the government on counterterrorism and transnational crime issues, just happens to be interesting timing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: That's Jeremy Douglas from the U.N. office there in Jakarta, speaking to us a short time ago.

We're going to go now live to Jakarta, CNN Indonesia reporter, Alfito Deannova. And just a heads up for our viewers, there's a very lengthy delay here, so bear with us. But we'd like to talk to Alfito about exactly what is happening right now on the scene of these attacks.

So, Alfito, explain to us what is happening around you, what have you seen, what's the very latest?

ALFITO DEANNOVA, CNN JAKARTA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, I'm right now standing like 500 meters. Before me, there's a scene where the bomb explosion happened early this morning. Well, if you want to attract, if you want to get attention from Indonesia, from even the world, this is the right spot. When you put something bad happen.

If you want to put horror, this is the right spot because a couple kilometers ahead, that would be a presidential palace. Behind me, over there, that would be central business district, when activities business happen every day, and many foreigners have activities there. So this is the right spot.

Again, this is the right spot, if you want to put horror and get attention from Indonesia and the world.

Again, what happened now, the terror is continue. Because what we heard from the police, that the several suspects still in a building, and we don't know yet how many hostage been kept there. But chief of police already being on the ground, also the chief of the intelligence in this country, and try to negotiate over put things to be done until the horror and the terror are finished -- John.

VAUSE: Alfito, just to clarify a few things for us that you said just then, do we know from the police if there are hostages inside that building that police have surrounded because the gunmen are believed to be inside? And did you say that negotiations underway with the gunmen? Do I have that right?

DEANNOVA: Well, we don't know yet, because there's no official information coming from the authority, but they are there, and the gunmen -- couple of gunmen, we don't know how many approximately the number of the gunmen are still in the building.

[01:30:00] But, yeah, they're still there and they tried to, you know, make it they come out or surrender.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Alfito Deannova, we appreciate you being with us, giving us that live update, painting a picture of what has been happening and what this area specifically is in terms of being a target. As you say, if they wanted to get attention, this was an area which was rife for this kind of attack.

Alfito Deannovo, with CNN Indonesia, thank you very much for being with us.

Please stay with us. Much more on our breaking news. We'll be back in just a moment. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. An update now on the breaking news out of Indonesia. Police say at least four people are dead, including one policeman. So far no claim of responsibility, but the country has been on high alert over threats from a terror group linked to ISIS.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: A police spokesman said the attackers used grenades as they targeting the police station in the capital. A gunfight broke out and police are actively searching for a number of suspects.

CNN's Kathy Quiano joins us now from Jakarta with more on this.

Kathy, bring us up to speed. Where are you right now? What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Isha, I just left -- (INAUDIBLE) what we saw was the Starbucks cafe with all the windows blown out, blown up. You could see that something had occurred there earlier. And my colleague reports there was a gunfight that happened there after the grenades were thrown at the police station across the street. Now, the aftermath of that scene at Starbucks, and that's probably why, as I reported earlier, heavily armed men entered the building where the Starbucks coffee shop was -- (INAUDIBLE) -- a while. Again, as I left the building, I saw them coming out and the police cordoned off. It's still unclear what REALLY transpired and who's behind it and what has happened -- (INAUDIBLE) -- reportedly escaped after the gunfight in the building -- Isha?

[01:35:57] SESAY: Kathy, we're having a few problems with your audio, it's not very clear. So apologies to our viewers for that. But let me just get some clarification. Are you saying that the operation in the skyline building is over? Is that what you're saying?

QUIANO: Isha, when I left, I left a few minutes ago and walked further down the street, but the police let journalists and bystanders come in. They took out some of the police -- (INAUDIBLE)

VAUSE: We have some problems with Kathy's line in Jakarta.

Kathy, we'll have to leave it there, because we're having problems hearing you. But we appreciate the reporting. Thank you for the update.

Just to remind our viewers what Kathy said there, she left the skyline building that police had surrounded with the thought that some gunmen were inside. She passed the Starbucks cafe with the windows blown out. This is across the road from the police station, which appears to be the initial attack. The Starbucks cafe was also hit with these explosions and Kathy reporting to us that at some point between the initial attack and now, police -- heavily armed police have raided that building where the Starbucks cafe is located, in search of other suspects. It's not known at this point if the suspects have escaped or if they're still being pursued by the police, or if they're been caught, if they've been killed. Clearly, there's a lot of unanswered questions at this point.

We should remind our viewers, all of this happening in the last couple of hours, and it's still an active crime scene, because there's at least one heavily armed suspect, according to police, who is still on the loose.

SESAY: Yeah, indeed. The Indonesian president coming out and calling these blasts an act of terror. As you saw with the pictures we had on the screen just a short time ago, very strong security presence there at the scene, as you would expect. But still many unanswered questions. We're still trying to get some clarification as to what is happening, who they're in pursuit of, and what the situation is with that skyline building that we've been watching a great deal in the last half an hour, 45 minutes.

VAUSE: We'll leave this story here for the time being while we try to work out what's going on. If we get updates, we'll bring them to you as soon as we get them.

In the meantime, the financial markets in the Asia-Pacific region have been sliding further into negative territory. Trading has just ended, where the Nikkei took a big hit. Look at that, down almost 2.75 percent. It was a little bit worse during the day. Hong Kong down by one-third of a percent. But look at this. The Shanghai, up and down all over the place most of the day, now down by 1 percent. And the Australia ASX 200 down 1.5 percent.

Slumping oil prices sent U.S. markets plunging. All three big New York indices are down 10 percent or more from their recent highs, officially in correction territory. The Dow fell 364 points, closing at 16,151. The NASDAQ was down 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.5 percent.

Let's bring in CNN's Asia-Pacific editor, Andrew Stevens, live this hour in Hong Kong.

So, Andrew, stocks in China rebounding just a little bit. But they're pretty much down to the lows that we saw last summer. Six months of government effort to prop up the market, pretty much for nothing?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, yes, in a word. I mean, it's been a miserable time to be an investor in Shanghai, as we all know. This market is so distorted at the moment, John, with restrictions on what you can and can't sell and when you can sell it, it's very difficult to get a handle on what the valuation of the Shanghai market is, other than most people saying it's way too high.

But it's a reflection of a miserable start to the year, not just for the Asian markets, but across the world. You mentioned the numbers on Wall Street in correction territory from last year, more than 10 percent. Yes, the markets in Asia did crawl off their lows for the day. At one stage, Japan was down 4 percent, which is a very big move for the Nikkei, a very big market in its own right. But look at the Asian markets there, the Shanghai, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and the Nikkei in Tokyo, all down by a long way, since the start of this year, and we're only two weeks into the year. The S&P, just to give you some context, down by 7.5 percent as well. So it has been a very, very tough start to the year. Oil prices have been a major rein behind this fall, the plunging oil price. Oil in Asia, continuing to fall, although it stabilized in the last hour or so, around the $30 a barrel mark. And also just what is going on with the Chinese economy, how weak is it, and what does that mean for the broader economic growth story of 2016?

So these are all playing into a very, very negative market at the moment. As I said, coming off the lows for the day, John, but we can't really read anything into that at this stage.

[01:41:07] VAUSE: I guess the question, too, is how will that then play into the European markets, then the U.S. markets, then you get this cycle, and clearly there's a lot of bad news to go through until we work through all of this.

But Andrew Stevens, live this hour in Hong Kong. Thank you.

STEVENS: Thanks, John.

SESAY: And we continue to follow the situation in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a series of blasts a short time ago claimed the lives of at least four people, including one police officer. We'll have the very latest for you after a break. Stay with us. We'll be right back after this.

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[01:44:50]VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. There's breaking news out of Jakarta, Indonesia. Police say at least four people are dead, including a policeman in an exPLOsion in the city center, one of several blasts that happened in the capital. So far, no claim of responsibility at this point, but as always, suspicion is falling on ISIS.

SESAY: A police spokesman said the attackers used grenades as they targeted a police station. A gunfight broke out between police and the attackers. And right now, police are surrounding a building in their search for the suspects.

VAUSE: Quick check of other news right now.

The circumstances of the release of 10 American sailors released from Iranian custody is now in question.

SESAY: The sailors were captured on Tuesday after their two patrol boats entered Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian television aired video of a sailor identified as a commander apologizing for the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SAILOR: It was a mistake that was our fault and we apologize for our mistake. It was a misunderstanding. We did not mean to go into Iranian territory.

The Iranian behavior was fantastic while we were here. We thank you very much for your hospitality and your assistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Pentagon says the video appears to be authentic, but said the crew's circumstances at the time were unknown. The Obama administration is emphasizing Washington has not issued any official apology.

SESAY: U.S. officials say law enforcement were aware of Sean Penn's interactions with Kate Del Castillo before the meeting with el Chapo. Authorities suspected the actor was trying to broker a movie deal.

VAUSE: They say the "Rolling Stone" article revealed the full extent of Penn's full interaction and a Mexican newspaper published transcripts of messages between Castillo and el Chapo and that led authorities to him.

SESAY: And that actress has made her first public comment since el Chapo was recaptured. Kate Del Castillo posted this message on Twitter.

VAUSE: "Thank you for your support over the past days. Not surprisingly many have chosen to make up items they think will make good stories and that aren't truthful. I look forward to sharing my story with you."

SESAY: And we look forward to hearing it.

VAUSE: She can come here and tell us.

SESAY: Indeed.

VAUSE: Anytime, Kate.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: We'll be right here Sunday through Thursday.

VAUSE: Absolutely.

SESAY: Stay with us. John and I will be back with more news right after this.

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[01:50:58] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We have more now on breaking news out of Jakarta. According to Reuters News Agency, Indonesian police have shot dead four suspected attackers who were involved in a gun and bomb attack in the capital Jakarta earlier today. Apparently, it all began outside a police station. And what we've been told by police is that initially three suspects were shot dead. A fourth was on the run. But now it appears, according to Reuters that maybe all the attackers, if we are to believe that there are four involved. There have been other reports that said the number may be much higher.

SESAY: As high as 14.

VAUSE: Yeah. But at this point, it appears that four suspects involved in this attack, which involved automatic gunfire, as well as grenades, have been killed by police. We should stress, this is coming to us from the Reuters News Agency.

SESAY: Let's bring in CNN's Kathy, joining us from Jakarta. She's been covering this for the last hour and a half or so.

Kathy, as we get this word from Reuters that four suspected militants were killed in an exchange of gunfire with authorities, what more can you tell us?

QUIANO: Well, Isha, we cannot independently confirm that information as yet. But we do know that they were -- police were in pursuit of an armed suspect earlier after the gunfight and the grenade exPLOsion. And he was reportedly inside an office building, skyline building. I earlier saw fully and heavily armed policemen, Special Forces go into the building. As I left that building, it seems the operation had winded down. I'm told now that the police are still inside the building, although journalists and bystanders are able to go closer. And what we saw there was a Starbucks cafe where the gunfight allegedly happened. All the windows are now all broken, blown out, in the aftermath of the gunfight that happened there between the police and the attackers -- Isha?

VAUSE: So, Kathy, if you look around you and you're very close to the scene, it would appear to you that this is now winding down, that these four attackers were quite possibly the only men who were involved in this gun and bomb attack in the Indonesian capital.

QUIANO: Well, certainly John, I saw a change from a very tense situation where the building was heavily guarded, surrounded by Special Forces from the police. You had civilian, policemen entering as well. And police very harshly telling us stay away, because there was an operation going on. But I had left the area about 15, 20 minutes ago. I could see that that had changed. They had relaxed security a bit around the building. And I suspect there must have been some kind of development in terms of the pursuit of the suspect who escaped earlier. Again, we need to confirm that with police. We'll get that confirmed as soon as we can -- John?

SESAY: And, Kathy, you moved away from the area where the skyline building is. So let me ask you what the situation is in other parts of the capital. There had been reports of explosions in other locations. What can you tell us?

QUIANO: Again, those reports have not been confirmed. There's been a lot of speculation and rumors going around on social media, people calling each other, understandably because they're very worried about the situation in the city now. Worried about their loved ones, who are in their offices, and kids who are in school. So there's been a lot of speculation, but none of those have been confirmed that are alleged explosions happened in other parts of the city. We know for sure this one attack that happened in the center of town on one of the main thorough fares in Jakarta. But now I'm seeing people are walking around. There's a few motorcycles and cars on this area, but it's been cordoned off. But we know for sure that as I was coming into the scene earlier, people were on the edge, people were talking about it. It's been many years since an attack in the capital has happened. So in spite of the heightened security, because of the terror threat, I'm sure this comes as a surprise to many Jakarta residents.

[01:55:21] VAUSE: Kathy, quickly, many of the buildings around the scene of the attack had been ordered to lock down. From what you can tell, is that order at least appears to --

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

VAUSE: I think we've lost Kathy.

SESAY: We have.

VAUSE: OK, so let's just recap. This all began two and a half hours ago, maybe three hours with initial reports of bomb blasts in the center of Jakarta, followed by reports of heavy gunfire. What we are now being told, at least according to Reuters News Agency, four attackers have been shot dead by the Indonesian police. There's also another word from the Indonesians saying at least one police officer was killed as well. So these numbers are a little bit uncertain right now, but possibly five people killed, four of them are the attackers.

SESAY: Important to note that, at points in the last couple of hours, we heard a varying numbers when it comes to attackers. As high as 14 in some cases, but that's not been confirmed. The Indonesian president calling this an act of terror, according to a news agency.

Stay with CNN for continuing coverage of the situation there in Jakarta, Indonesia. We'll have much more.

I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

Please stay with us. Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett will pick up our news coverage after this.

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