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Explosions rock Indonesia's Bali, at least 3 dead

Posted on: Saturday, 1 October 2005, 09:23 CDT

BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Up to four explosions rocked popular tourist areas on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, local media and witnesses said.

At least three people died in one of the blasts in the Kuta beach area, police on the scene said.

One witness told El Shinta radio that there were at least 30 casualties at another blast in the Jimbaran Beach area, although he did not say if any victims were dead. One hospital said at least 40 injured people had been brought in.

The blasts -- which the president called a criminal act -- come almost exactly three years after Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda bombed two nightclubs in Bali's famous Kuta Beach in October 2002, killing 202 people, mainly foreign tourists.

"People were running for their lives. Foreign tourists were wounded. I am so scared," Yosi, 24, a shop owner near the Kuta blast told Reuters.

A separate police official at the island's headquarters said he could confirm two explosions, one in Kuta and the other at a cafe on Jimbaran beach.

Local Metro TV said there were two blasts at Jimbaran and two at Kuta. It quoted witnesses who said one of the Jimbaran explosions was near the Four Seasons Hotel.

One of the Kuta blasts caused widespread damage to nearby shops and restaurants, witnesses said.

"I don't know about the number of victims or casualties. We're still busy collecting data," police official Suwita said.

Indonesia officials have been warning for months that Islamic militants were likely to launch more bombing attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the blasts and was heading to the island, his spokesman said.

"The president strongly condemns this criminal act. At this moment, the president is at the airport (in Jakarta)," spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told El Shinta radio.

A man who said he witnessed a bomb blast in the Kuta beach area of Indonesia's Bali island on Saturday told El Shinta news radio he saw the severed head of a victim.

The witness, I Wayan Krisna, said he thought the head was from a Japanese tourist. He also said he saw the severed foot of another victim.

"One head that I found was Japanese and one other that I found had a foot like a white's, like the foot of woman," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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