Holiday haven turns into hell
asia.scmp.com
Monday, October 14, 2002
Holiday haven turns into hell
VAUDINE ENGLAND and MARIANNE KEARNEY in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
The Sari Club was packed tight at peak time on its busiest night when two blasts went off, demolishing the club, nearby Paddy's club and the surrounding neighbourhood.
Hundreds of people fled screaming in panic into the narrow street, Jalan Legian, to escape the burning buildings. Amid the chaos, volunteers dashed to recover bodies flung across the street, while others took the opportunity to loot. So congested by bars, restaurants and revellers is this part of town that ambulances took two hours to reach the victims.
Dazed tourists wandering the streets of Kuta or trying to fly out of Bali, said the explosion was enormous and could be felt as far as half a kilometre away. One American traveller who was walking across the road from the Sari Club as the blast occurred said the explosion was so strong he was lifted off the ground.
"It was like the sky was falling down, there was exploding white light and I was lifted off the ground. Then all the buildings around me collapsed," said Amos Libby.
"There were bodies everywhere, it looked like there were hundreds. Cars lifted off the street, flipped over and buried people. There were pieces of bodies everywhere. People with 80 per cent of their bodies burnt and their clothes torn were walking around," said the 25-year-old classical music graduate.
Other bystanders who narrowly escaped being caught up in the blast said the whole street appeared to be burning.
"The lights blacked out and people were running and screaming on to the streets, and there was just fire everywhere. It was like an inferno and everything was ablaze, so we just ran to the beach," said Marisa Cicchini, a 27-year-old from Melbourne. Ms Cicchini said she and some friends were heading towards the Sari Club from their hotel 500 metres away when they heard the explosion.
At least six other buildings in Jalan Legian, Kuta's main tourist street, have been destroyed, while almost every shop, hotel and restaurant in a half-kilometre radius, in what was once the town's liveliest district have been partially destroyed.
Witnesses close to the club, which does not allow local people into the premises, say Jalan Legian was chaotic, with ambulances taking at least two hours to arrive.
Dozens of severely burned and seriously injured people stood around the debris littering the district.
"People were lined up against one wall and were screaming in pain. They had been injured really badly. It was just chaos," said Craig Settle, a 16-year-old Australian tourist who with his father helped carry out several injured people.
As ambulances and Indonesian medical teams took some time to begin assisting bomb victims, several foreign nurses close to the Sari Club began organising the evacuation, using building materials or hard surfaces to transport the injured.
"People were carried out on surfboards or mattresses or whatever," said Bob Settle, 47. Several people suffering from mild and severe burns gathered in hotel courtyards and were plunged into hotel pools to ease the pain, he said.
The evacuation was painfully slow as ambulances could not drive close to the bomb site and could only evacuate one person at a time. For some victims the evacuation process was just too slow.
Mr Settle said he tried to help one young Ecuadorean woman, who was bleeding severely from her chest but she died minutes before an ambulance arrived. A group of tourists at Bali's airport said taxis were refusing to take blast victims to hospital. "Taxis just would not take them if they had blood on them," said 23-year-old Jenni Brucki.
Hospitals in Bali have been overwhelmed and have not been able to confirm the nationalities of many of those who died or the nationality of almost half of the critically injured.
Bali's main public hospital, the Sanglah Public Hospital, is full of Australian, British and European tourists as well as Indonesians trying to locate family, friends and relatives. A group of five Australian men were wandering the hospital wards checking for their missing wives and children.
David Byron, from Sydney, said he was still unable to locate his 16-year-old daughter, 16 hours after the bomb exploded.
"A group of them went to the Sari Club to celebrate the 16th birthday of a friend of my daughter, but we haven't found them," said a tearful Mr Byron. The wife of a friend of Mr Byron was killed in the blast, her body identified at the hospital.
At the airport, dozens of traumatised tourists were scrambling to get on the first available plane. Mr Libby, whose parents were due to arrive in Bali yesterday morning, said he would try to get on the first flight out as soon as he met his parents and would probably not return to Indonesia. "This is the first time I have felt like a target."
Australia has sent four Hercules to evacuate the most seriously wounded, two dozen of which are not expected to survive the journey. Australia's Qantas airline has cancelled flights and reorganised schedules to help with the evacuation.
After hearing the blast, staff at a nearby hotel went to see if they could help. "We helped carry out the bodies . . . they were burnt all over," said hotel worker, Dejut.
"And I say **** to the terrorists, half our guests left today, soon I will have no job," he added. |
