SCORES
of Australians are dead and more than 100 are injured after a
terrorist bomb ripped through a packed Bali nightspot.
A group with ties to the al-Qaeda terror network has been linked
to the attack, which killed at least 187 tourists and wounded
another 309.
The death toll is expected to rise,
with 90 survivors in critical condition.
Seven Australians were last night
confirmed dead, with 113 injured.
Australians made up 80 per
cent of holidaymakers at the westerners-only Sari nightclub, which
was devastated by the car bomb attack.
The main blast at the Sari club,
one of two explosions, wrecked buildings within a 500m radius and
left a 1.5m crater.
The blast ignited a huge blaze –
apparently caused by exploding gas cylinders – which made the
flimsy roof collapse, trapping hundreds of revellers inside.
People jumped from windows and
desperately scaled walls to escape. Others edged their way through
ruins littered with charred bodies.
"It's nothing quite like
anything I've ever seen," Melbourne tourist Martin Lyons
said.
"There was more blood, the
smell of burnt skin and the pain that they were in – you can't
really put that into words."
Last night, 40 severely wounded
Australians were due to arrive in Darwin after being evacuated by
RAAF Hercules.
In other developments:
IT was feared the
Australians were the prime target of the terrorist attack.
TWO Victorian girls were
fighting for their lives after being cut down by shrapnel and
suffering horrific burns.
SEVERAL AFL footballers were
among the injured, including Mick Martyn, Jason McCartney and
Steven Febey.
PLAYERS from Melbourne, the
Kangaroos, Geelong, the Dockers, Port Power and the Crows escaped
the blast.
MANY rugby and Aussie rules
footballers were feared dead, including the brother of Big
Brother's Jessica Hardy.
AL-QAEDA linked terrorist
group Jemaah Islamiah was suspected of carrying out the attack.
THE US condemned the attack
as a "despicable act of terror".
INDONESIAN authorities said
the bombing was the worst act of terrorism in Indonesia's history.
PRIME Minister John Howard
described the attacks as "wicked, cowardly and
barbaric", and warned of "significant" Australian
deaths.
AUSTRALIA offered to provide
intelligence to track down the bombers.
The blast occurred on the second
anniversary of the al-Qaeda-linked attack against USS Cole
off Yemen that killed 17 sailors.
Just after 11pm on Saturday night,
a car bomb exploded outside the Sari nightclub, sparking a massive
fireball.
The blast flattened the Sari,
Paddy's bar opposite and 27 buildings within a 500m radius.
Thousands of revellers in the
popular Kuta area were crushed under rubble and trapped in the
inferno as gas cylinders exploded. At the same time as the Sari
explosion, another terrorist bomb was detonated just 100m from the
US Consulate in Denpasar.
There were no casualties in that
attack but after the Sari bombing, charred bodies lay everywhere.
One local photographer said:
"You can smell the bodies of those who died."
Dozens of injured were ferried to
hospitals while others ran screaming into nearby hotels, their
flesh embedded with shrapnel and seared by the flames.
Many injured tourists ran to the
Bounty Hotel, 400m from the bomb site, where they were helped by
horrified guests.
"People were just walking in,
blood dripping off them, burns to their face, skin coming off
them," said Australian tourist Rachael Hughes. "It was
really a terrible sight."
The nearby Sanglah hospital could
not cope with the dozens of Australians coming in.
Many lay in pain, untreated for
hours.
Victorian businesswoman Sevegne
Newton tended the injured.
"There were kids coming in on
stretchers. They were bloody and red from head to toe," she
said.
"They're predominantly
Australian.
"There was a room to the side
where there were charred corpses.
"There were piles of stiff,
charred bodies."
Hours later, bodies were still
piled up on the streets outside the nightclubs. Witnesses said it
was impossible to tell locals from foreigners.
Australian sporting clubs on
holiday in Bali have been hard hit, with Perth's Kingsley Football
Club missing seven players. New South Wales' Forbes Rugby Union
Club may have up to three players dead.
Southport Football Club in
Queensland is missing seven members while South Australia's Sturt
Football Club has two of its premiership players unaccounted for.
An urgent meeting of Federal
Cabinet's national security committee will be held today to review
Australia's protection against terrorist attacks.
Yesterday, Mr Howard warned
Australia was not immune from attack and was as much a target as
any other Western country.
"People should get out of
their minds that it can't happen here – it can, and it has
happened to our own on our doorstep," Mr Howard said.
But he vowed "the war against
terrorism must go on with unrelenting vigour and an unconditional
commitment."
No one claimed responsibility for
the attack but Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer pointed
to the extremist Jemaah Islamiyah.
"JI, as it's known, does have
links to al-Qaeda, it has financial as well as personnel links to
al-Qaeda, and it's conceivable that an organisation like that
could be behind this action," he said.
Mr Downer said it was possible
Australians were targets but more likely the attacks were a broad
attack on Westerners.
It is estimated that about 20,000
Australians would normally be in Bali at this time of year.
