Fireball, flying glass as New Zealanders caught in blast

By SCOTT MacLEOD

A few stunning seconds define the memories of the two New Zealanders injured by Jakarta's latest terrorist bomb blast.

Michael Rudman saw a window imploding, a fireball sweeping above him, barefoot women on broken glass, blood on his body that was not his own.

Riki Taiaroa felt a sensation like fluid dripping on the back of his neck as it was scorched by flames, and saw a man staggering behind him with his head on fire and "smoke and flames".

They had just sat down for lunch in the five-star Marriott Hotel when the explosion hit like an earthquake at 12.30pm local time on Tuesday (5.30pm NZT).

Mr Rudman, 39, was sitting at street level 7m from a window when he heard a crumping noise.

"I look towards the windows and can see them coming at us. And fire. And all this crap falling down."

The blast smashed the chair from under him and he fell back.

He saw "something like a gas fireball tumbling across the ceiling".

A man behind him caught fire. Another man in front - probably Mr Taiaroa - bent forward and was scorched across the back of the head.

The next shocked moments brought images of "picking girls up off the floor. Broken glass. Covered in blood."

Most of the blood was not Mr Rudman's. But doctors would later take 45 minutes to stitch gaping wounds caused by flying glass.

Mr Taiaroa, 42, said a mighty blast was followed by a sheet of flame at head height.

He was sitting and escaped the worst of the flames, but the man behind him was not so lucky.

"His head was on fire and he was running about and we got him down and put it out," Mr Taiaroa said. "Then someone yelled 'everybody out', and we ran out and the hotel staff were calm as you like, helping everyone."

The New Zealanders were taken to hospital, but there were no beds. Frantic medics were dealing with 16 dead and 150 injured.

Mr Taiaroa was eventually treated for whiplash and burns to the back of his head.

Two other New Zealanders, Annemarie Mulder and David Ross, were also among 29 Fonterra staff at the Marriott Hotel for a training course on Tuesday.

Mr Ross, who is general manager of NZ Milk in Jakarta, was on the second floor telling journalists about New Zealand's beauty. He had raised his arms in the air when "there was a sound of thunder as though someone was supporting my argument".

Annemarie Mulder was on the fifth floor and was least affected by the blast. She played a leading role in assembling the Fonterra staff and contacting relatives.

Many other New Zealanders saw the blast or its aftershock, but the closest was Canterbury University graduate David Chang.

He had just ordered nasi goreng on the 15th floor of his office block 100m from the car bomb when the building shook as though hit by an earthquake.

He rushed to the window to see cars burning and people running.

"I knew it was a bomb straight away because it was so loud," he said.

"We started calling friends and the phone lines were all jammed.

"We were told there was a bomb on the ninth floor of our own building so I started walking down the stairs and there was panic."

Reports described chaotic scenes as survivors tried to hijack cars to flee the carnage or drive badly wounded friends to hospital.

Mr Chang, who is president director of the Paramitra Securities stockbroking firm, said the blast would hurt the Indonesian economy.

Interest rates would rise, business confidence and the currency would drop and fewer people would visit the country.

Mr Rudman, a nephew of Herald columnist Brian Rudman, and Mr Taiaroa were the only New Zealanders injured in the blast, thought to be a suicide car bombing.

The al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah is said to have claimed responsibility for the explosion.

An unnamed spokesman for the group told Singapore's Straits Times it was intended to deter a Government crackdown on militants.

Debris littered the area yesterday. Hundreds of police cordoned off the carnage for forensic experts.

Indonesia's Government has vowed to impose tough new security measures.

In New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would not strengthen its already stern warnings against travelling to Indonesia.

The Herald yesterday spoke to 18 New Zealanders living in Indonesia. About half said the bombing had made them consider their safety.

Former Christchurch man Kevin Jamie, 41, heard the blast from his 14th-floor office 1km away.

He said many of his friends had left Indonesia since last October's Bali bombing, which killed three New Zealanders and 199 others.

"Personal security is high on the mind of every expat living in Jakarta," he said. "Watching the ambulances going backwards and forwards past the office brings back all the questions to which there are no black and white answers."

Former Hawera man Dave Donaldson, 49, is director of a safety and survival training school in West Java.

"I'm wondering if I should be concerned about my safety," he said. "But after living here since 1976 these things have become part of life."

- Additional reporting, Brian Rudman