P

olice believe that the death of a 23-year-old man in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, may have been as a result of bored youngsters throwing stones.

Duren Sawit Police chief Comr. Johannes Kindangen told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the victim'€™s family had filed a police report on Sunday.

'€œThe victim was riding a motorcycle with his 17-year-old girlfriend near a convenience store when a group of youths allegedly started throwing rocks at them early on Sunday morning. One of the rocks hit the victim on the left side of his head,'€ he said.

According to the police report, the teenagers also threw rocks at the motorcycle causing it to crash into the pavement, Johannes explained.

'€œThe victim'€™s head hit the pavement and he suffered major head injuries and injuries to his arms and legs,'€ he said, adding that the victim'€™s girlfriend escaped the incident with minor injuries to her elbows and knees.

The victim and his girlfriend were immediately rushed to Islam Pondok Kopi Hospital in East Jakarta for treatment. However, the victim succumbed to his injuries at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

So far the police have questioned seven witnesses including the victim'€™s friends who were driving behind him.

Johannes said that doctors at the hospital had conducted an autopsy on the victim'€™s body and police were awaiting the results to determine whether the death was caused by the stone throwing. '€œIf so this is a serious crime,'€ he said.

The streets are not the only place where teenagers throw rocks or stones to pass the time. Spokesman from state-owned railway operator PT KAI'€™s Operation Region (Daop) I Jakarta, Agus Komarudin, told the Post that their trains were often bombarded by stones thrown by children.

'€œThere are several hotspots where the trains often have stones thrown at them, such as Bekasi [West Java], and we have security officers in the areas surrounding stations but it is still difficult to catch these children,'€ he said.

Agus said KAI cooperated with the police in order to tackle the ongoing problem.

He cited a recent incident where KAI security staff contacted the police to deal with several high school students who were hanging about Manggarai Station in South Jakarta in the middle of the day.

'€œWe were afraid that they would cause trouble. So in the end we called their high school and their parents,'€ he said.

Other efforts have not been as fruitful, Agus said that KAI once distributed flyers around the station asking locals not to throw stones. The stone-throwing subsided for a couple of days, he said, before it started up again.

'€œWe now have thicker windows that can withstand the stones, but our passengers probably feel unsafe when they hear rocks hitting the windows,'€ he said. (fss)