187 killed 309 injured in Bali club blast

ONE blackened body after another was yesterday pulled from the blood-spattered remains of a tourist nightclub ripped apart

The Sari Club was packed with happy holiday-makers before the explosion late on Saturday evening visitors from Ireland, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, France, Sweden, the United States and many other western countries.

Yesterday, the club on the main street in the popular beach resort of Kuta was a mass of smouldering ruins while other nightspots nearby discos, restaurants and a hotel had roofs blown in and walls smashed.

Shattered walls and pavements were covered with blood and body parts were scattered in the debris.

Another bomb went off almost simultaneously at about 11.05pm local time near the United States consulate in Bali's capital Denpasar. No one was reported injured in that blast.

Tourists were fleeing the island yesterday, fearful of a repeat attack, which authorities blamed on terrorists.

Witnesses described scenes of terror immediately after the explosion.

Eyewitness Kevin Mattocks said he was with his cousin in Bali, who was supposed to be getting married in two days' time. Briton Mr Mattocks, who was with his cousin in an Irish pub called Paddy's Bar, a few hundred yards from the Sari Club, said he thought there were two explosions.

"The first one was on the opposite side to us...which made us go to the floor," he told Sky News."It was a pillar that saved us from the second blast.

"We managed to climb over people and over a concrete wall and along the street, which was full of glass and debris and people screaming."

Mr Mattocks said he could not walk because of injuries to his legs: "I didn't know what else was going to happen. There was just total chaos in there. There was no warning at all. There was just loud music playing. Everyone was having a good time."

Briton Matthew Noyce described the panic inside one of the bars.

He said the aftermath was "like a scene from Vietnam".

Bloodied survivors fled the bar, some with limbs blown off. Cars and motorbikes on the road in front were alight, forming a wall of flames blocking people's escape.

"Some poor bugger was laying right on the corner and one of his legs was gone. ... He was quite coherent, he was just saying, 'what's going to happen to me?'," said Bruce Baker, a tourist from Australia's Gold Coast.

"I said to him, 'You'll be right, mate, someone will come'."

As daylight broke on the normally tranquil holiday resort, blood still splattered walls and the roadway. A leg was on a nearby roof. A charred hand was on a sidewalk. Shoes and sandals were scattered across a road.

Hundreds of police cordoned off the area. Bomb squad officers were going through the ruins. The blackened remains of dozens of cars and motorbikes cluttered the town's main road.

A few dazed-looking tourists stood by, watching. Most sheltered in their hotels, desperate to get the first plane out. At the airport, tourists sat on the ground hoping to board flights.

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesteray there were 40 Australians in hospitals in Bali and of those about 15 were seriously injured.

Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar said the blast came from a Kijang, a jeep-like vehicle, and was "the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history."

The US Embassy's recreation club in the capital, Jakarta, was evacuated yesterday after a bomb threat.

There was no claim of responsibility for the two blasts on Bali, but they came three days after the US government issued a worldwide alert for terror attacks.

Facts about Bali

PEOPLE: Most of Bali's 3 million people are Hindu, unlike the rest of Indonesia's 207 million inhabitants who are predominantly Muslim.

Most are indigenous islanders, but many come from other parts of Indonesia. In urban centres, there are small Indian, Arab, and ethnic Chinese communities.

Bali has a relaxed lifestyle and culture, which is tolerant of alcohol consumption and the demands of Western vacationers.

POLITICS: Bali has remained relatively immune from the political, religious and ethnic strife that has wracked the country for the past five years during its transition from three decades of dictatorship to democracy.

Most Balinese supported President Megawati Sukarnoputri's party in the 1999 elections.

ECONOMY: Known as the Island of the Gods, Bali has been one of the world's most popular tourist destination for decades.

The likelihood of the blast scaring away hundreds of thousands of tourists could be a devastating blow to not only the island's economy but that of the whole of Indonesia.

GEOGRAPHY: Bali is a small tropical island measuring 90 miles by 60 miles and is one of 17,508 islands that comprise Indonesia. It is best known for luxury holiday resorts, black sand beaches and volcanoes.