Bali bomb death toll rises to 22

Bombs exploded almost simultaneously today in two tourist areas of the Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 22 people and wounding close to 50 others, police and hospital officials said.

The victims included foreign tourists.

Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhyono said terrorists were to blame and warned that more attacks were possible.

“We will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” he said after being briefed by top security officials, urging everyone “to be on alert”.

The blasts at a crowded seafood restaurant on Jimbaran beach and a three-storey noodle and steak house in downtown Kuta came nearly three years to the day after twin bombings on the resort island claimed 202 lives, many of them foreign tourists.

The al-Qaida linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the October 12, 2002 attack and was suspected over today’s bombings.

The bodies of 22 people were counted in two hospitals – 11 at Sangla and 11 at Graha Asih – officials there said. Close to 50 others were admitted with injuries, many of them serious, including eight Australians and two Americans.