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Relative calm has returned to the Indonesian capital, after police confirmed that a series of militant attacks on civilian targets in Jakarta had ended. 

Police said four suspected Jakarta attackers were dead, including two suicide bombers.

Rumours that the attacks were linked to the Islamic State group have not been confirmed, but it has sparked fears that Islamic militants are once again targeting archipelago state, after decades of violence.

Earlier in the day, a series of bombs killed at least seven people in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday, with shots fired outside a cafe as police moved in, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

The blasts took place close to a shopping centre, the Sarinah, where victims' bodies were seen strewn on the ground.

At least six explosions rang out and a police post was damaged.

"This is a bomb," Anton Charliyan, national police spokesman told AFP.

He had warned people to stay away, saying police fear there could be more bombs.

The shooting was happening outside a Starbucks opposite the shopping centre.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks.

After a series of attacks on foreigners in the last decade, Indonesian extremists have in recent years directed their violence at domestic "enemies of Islam," mostly police.

There have been no attacks against foreigners since the 2009 twin hotel bombings in Jakarta which killed seven people.