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Jakarta. As many as 400 police officers launched a massive manhunt south of Medan on Friday to track down an armed group that clashed with police twice overnight.

A spokesman for the North Sumatra Police, Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar, said that between 300 and 400 police officers, as well as police dogs, had been deployed to Tebing Tinggi subdistrict in Serdang Bedagai, about 100 kilometers south of the provincial capital.

Baharudin said the North Sumatra Police chief, Insp. Gen. Oegroseno, was personally leading the manhunt.

Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeto, a National Police spokesman, told journalists in Jakarta that police officers in Tebing Tinggi had clashed with a group of armed men on motorcycles on Thursday evening and that another firefight occurred on Friday morning.

No casualties were reported.

“The first exchange of gunfire took place on Thursday at around 6:30 p.m.,” he said, adding that no arrests had yet been made.

The incident took place on a road passing through a rubber plantation just outside of Tebing Tinggi after villagers had become suspicious of a group of 16 men carrying bags that appeared to contain firearms.

The police were subsequently notified and four officers from the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) were immediately dispatched to verify the report.

Arriving at the scene, the officers spotted the men, who were now on seven motorcycles. When challenged, the men opened fire on the officers.

Marwoto said the suspects then split into three groups and began to flee, but one of the motorcycles ran out of gas and several other members of the group returned to help the rider.

They then stopped a passing motorcyclist and forced him to hand over his motorcycle at gunpoint before escaping.

A second gunfight took place the following morning at about 2:30 a.m. at a police station in nearby Dolok Masihul subdistrict, where men armed with automatic weapons opened fired on the police chief.

Marwoto said the police chief returned fire and may have hit one of the suspects in the stomach, but the man was carried away by another gunman when they fled. No one was arrested.

North Sumatra has seen a spate of recent shootings, including an attack on a police post last week in Hamparan Perak subdistrict, outside of Medan, that left three officers dead.

Three terrorist suspects were also shot dead and 18 others arrested during police raids near Medan, although five suspects were released this week for lack of evidence.

The 13 remaining suspects, who have since been transferred to Brimob headquarters in Kelapa Dua in Depok, will be charged under the Anti-Terror Law and for the illegal possession of firearms.

Police have said the 13 suspects were involved in a series of armed robberies across North Sumatra, including one at a CIMB Niaga bank branch in Medan that left one policeman dead.

Baharudin said the armed group in Tebing Tinggi was believed to be linked to the Medan bank robbery and the attack on the Hamparan Perak police post.