Injured die as flames stop ambulances getting to site

Rotorua policeman Barry Hunt and his wife, Fiona, watched victims of Bali's bomb blasts die in front of them as ambulances tried vainly to reach them.

Mr Hunt said that soon after the bombings about 30 people were lying in their hotel carpark with horrific injuries. Other victims were put into the hotel pool to try to ease burns.

"No one could do anything," he said.

"I have seen bodies before but ... everyone was burned, it was just horrific.

"They were lying there with their clothes burned off them, blown off them.

"Everyone was just pouring water over everybody. It seemed to take hours for the ambulances to get there."

The vehicles were blocked from reaching the injured by a wall of fire caused by the massive car bombs, which killed at least 180 people and injured hundreds of others.

Hours after the double blast, a hotel wall was demolished to allow the ambulances through.

The number of New Zealand casualties is still unknown, but 12 are confirmed injured.

Survivors yesterday spoke of close escapes or of last-minute decisions not to go into the two destroyed bars, the Sari Club and Paddys Irish pub.

One group, from Whangarei, narrowly escaped death when a concrete pillar outside the Sari Club protected them from the blast.

Patrick Shepheard and his partner, Julia Warrington, were with eight other New Zealanders in Bali for the couple's wedding. They and another friend were outside the club when the bomb exploded. None was seriously hurt.

Two New Plymouth men, Tom Waite and Billy Quickfall, had tried to get into Paddy's earlier in the evening, but had gone away because it was full.

Mr Waite said yesterday that a well-known restaurant across the street had also been destroyed.

"All the floors have collapsed. They don't even know how many people are under there."

Another New Zealander, Daniel Whiston, of Auckland, said on television last night that he had helped a man he thought was a Kiwi who had lost both legs in the explosion.

He stayed at the scene for two hours helping the injured.

Waikato tourist consultant Heather Walker was with a group of eight New Zealanders asleep in the Kuta Seaview Hotel when the blasts blew out windows in two of the units.

Ms Walker said her group and the other occupants were concerned about going too close to the inferno, which she described as "horrendous".

She said that a group of five Australians at the hotel had earlier gone to the Sari, and never came home.

- STAFF REPORTERS, NZPA

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Feature: Bali bomb blast

Pictures from the scene of the blast

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