Holiday-makers swept up in horror

Chairs and tables lie scattered on the ground after a bomb blast ripped through the Jimbaran Fish Cafe. Jason Childs / Getty Images

New Zealanders settled in for dinner under the stars have described their horror as they realised neighbouring restaurants had been blown up.
They described surreal scenes such as a fireworks display which went ahead at the popular Jimbaran Bay restaurant strip as people lay dead and wounded on the beach, and waiters trying to convince diners nothing was wrong.

Wellington couple Matthew and Maria Seymour were sitting at a restaurant with their 3-year-old daughter Jemma when the blasts began.

"We were just two or three restaurants from where it all happened. There was a pretty loud explosion, three of them," Matthew Seymour said.

People sat looking stunned before crowds started fleeing.

"I remember hearing the noise and seeing like a lot of air come out of the restaurant. I thought it was a huge fireworks display gone wrong," he said.

"The sound was huge. Think of the biggest firework display and double it."

His wife grabbed their daughter and they fled down the beach.

"We just wanted to get out of there. People didn't do much at first, then there were shrieks and screaming. It was very sobering."

The couple had very little sleep on Saturday night and were planning to fly to Sydney yesterday before returning to Wellington.

New Zealand Herald photographer Kenny Rodger was at Jimbaran, about 1km from the blasts. Some of his group of eight New Zealand friends had gone up to the counter to order a seafood dinner and others were sitting at their beach table when the blasts occurred.

"It shook the ground big time, just a huge phenomenal bang," he said. "It was bloody scary."

The sound was like "nothing you've ever heard before. It's 10 times more powerful than any sort of fireworks explosion."

There was a gap of 10 or 20 seconds between the explosions. The second blast was more powerful than the first, he said.

Mr Rodger said some people did not immediately leave the restaurant, perhaps thinking the explosions were part of a fireworks display further down the beach.

Restaurant staff also tried to reassure people that nothing was wrong.

"The people in the restaurant tried to say that everything was okay and that it was just the waves crashing on the beach, but everyone knew better."

Mr Rodger said a fireworks display went ahead in another part of the bay about 10 minutes after the explosions. He and his friends decided to get a taxi back to their hotel, about 30 minutes' drive away in Kuta.

He said it was hard work because by that time news had spread of another bomb exploding in Kuta Square and the locals were devastated. "Our cab driver was in tears."

Mr Rodger has been in Indonesia on a surfing trip with six friends since September 17.

The group were scheduled to fly home tomorrow night and yesterday planned to stick to their flight.

Mr Rodger said they were staying inside their hotel, afraid to leave because of reports of unexploded bombs and possible attacks on places where tourists gathered, such as the airport.

Also in Kuta, Kevin and Dianne Stone from Loburn, Canterbury, and their two daughters, Abbey and Jenna, had been in the street where the bombs went off just an hour before the attacks.

They were having dinner at a restaurant about five minutes' walk away. "We heard a muffled thump."

They walked back towards the centre of Kuta and were confronted with blocked streets and flashing lights. "We thought it must be an accident."

Mr Stone said if the blasts had happened a little earlier or later they would have been caught in the middle of it.

"There but for the grace of God go I. It's a numbing sort of feeling."