POLICE IN JAKARTA say 16 terror suspects have been arrested after they planned to carry out a mass cyanide poisoning plot.

A spokesperson says that the suspects had planned to poison police through food at station canteens and also by poisoning mineral water bottles, calling it a “new model of terror attack”.

In recent months police have arrested dozens of suspects, allegedly part of a new militant cell behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs that were sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials. The cell was linked to an April suicide bomb attack in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon in West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a massive bomb near a Christian church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

-Additional reporting by AP