Australia in shock

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/2323745.stm

Huge death toll from Bali bombing

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At least 182 people are now known to have died in a devastating car bomb blast outside a crowded nightclub on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali.
Hospital officials estimate that 75% of the dead were foreigners, many of them Australians. The victims also included Britons, New Zealanders, Germans and Americans.

The explosion targeted the Sari Club - a nightspot extremely popular with Western tourists in the resort of Kuta - at about 2330 (1530 GMT) on Saturday, as the area was packed with revellers.

More than 300 people were injured in the attack, and others are still missing.

"This is the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history," said the country's police chief General Da'i Bachtiar. No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The American ambassador to Indonesia, Ralph Boyce, said the US had been warning the Indonesian Government of the risk of a major terrorist attack for weeks.

The club was reduced to a heap of smouldering ruins by the blast, and nearby discos, restaurants and a hotel were also damaged.

Cars and motorbikes parked outside the club became a wall of flame, blocking people's escape


A doctor said many of the bodies brought into hospitals around the island's capital Denpasar were too charred to be identified.

Click here for a map of the area

Indonesia has appealed for international assistance as local hospitals struggle to cope. Ian White, a volunteer at a hospital near the scene of the bombing said there were serious medical shortages and victims were simply being bandaged and shipped out.

A major evacuation of burns victims has begun by the Australian air force.

The Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, visited the scene and vowed to pursue those responsible.

At about the same time of the attack another bomb exploded near the American honorary consulate in Denpasar, although nobody was injured.


"The bombings, once again, should be a warning for all of us that terrorism constitutes a real danger," Megawati said.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, condemned the attack as a "barbaric, wicked and cowardly" act and said: "The war against terrorism must go on with unrelenting vigour and with an unconditional commitment."

Australia in shock

The BBC's Michael Peschardt in Sydney says several Australian rugby teams and football teams were in the area when the bomb went off.

Australia's national airline, Qantas, is putting on extra flights and many holidaymakers are seeking to leave Bali as soon as possible.

However, the BBC's Richard Galpin says foreign tourists are still milling around Kuta's bars.

The United States condemned the attack as a "despicable act of terror" and offered help to Indonesia "to see that those responsible for this cowardly act face justice".

The UK Foreign Office has advised Britons not to travel to Indonesia.

Condemning the attack, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was "a desperate, terrible act of terrorism aimed at entirely innocent people".

Carnage

British tourist Matt Noyce, from London, was in the bar of the Sari Club when the blast occurred.

"There was just complete panic in the bar with lots of people diving to the door trying to scramble over each other," he said.

"Outside it was awful, it was like a scene you'd see from Vietnam. There were bodies everywhere."

Bali was regarded as a peaceful, mainly-Hindu enclave in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The BBC's Richard Galpin in Bali says it may have been seen as a soft target for anyone who wished to attack Westerners.

The bombing followed persistent US warnings that American nationals in Indonesia were at risk of being targeted by Islamic militants linked to the al-Qaeda terror group.

The US embassy in Jakarta closed for several days last month after intelligence reports warned of possible car bomb attacks.

Authorities in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore have claimed that members of a group known as Jemaah Islamiyah - said to be seeking to set up an Islamic state in South East Asia - are based in Indonesia.

The blasts in Bali came just hours after a small hand-made bomb went off near the Philippine consulate in the port city of Manado on the central island of Sulawesi, north-east of Jakarta.

i hear theyre blaming it on al-quaidia tossers.

some family is there now,7ish miles away,they were in builing night before,but from where there staying they said it was like a tremor
comming home tommorow,the police are tring to limit the number of westerners in the airport at one time incase its next target

Australias 9/11
moslems again :(
Who's next?

Time to retaliate?

Who says it is al-quaidia? Any evidence?
I think the Government are blaming al-quaidia because they want it to be them, whether it is or not... who knows?

its actualy more likely to be an internal group of moslems who were pi$$ed off at the part australia took in saving the non moslems of east timor from the violence and opression of the moslem indoneasians.

But one bunch of moslem cowards is no better than another bunch of moslem cowards.

yeah but we rember like in iraq we sold them the weapons