Everything black, burning after blast hits Paddys bar

Wellington tourist Richard Keane was sitting in Paddys Irish bar at Kuta Beach when the explosion threw him from his chair.

"There were two blasts," he told the Herald. "The first one knocked everyone off their feet and everyone was scrambling for the exit when the second one hit and knocked everyone off their feet again.

"After the blast it was all black. Everything was charred, burning. There was singed hair and skin. There was just a lot of screaming and panic.

"You couldn't see anything. The front of the bar fell out, like a wall, it exploded and you could see the fire from the [next-door] Sari Club."

Both clubs were packed with foreign holidaymakers. Mr Keane, who had been with three friends at Paddys, started to haul the wounded and dying from the debris.

"There were people lying down screaming, injured and yelling," he said.

"One guy I pulled out, he was bleeding from the head and he just kind of ... died, so we just left him there and got other people.

"From my group, one guy is still unaccounted for but I'm sure he's okay."

His missing companion is 25-year-old Dean McDougall.

Mr McDougall's parents were still awaiting word of him at their Southland home last night. They had little choice but to wait by the telephone for news.

"We just want to know where he is. We want to know he is okay," Elaine McDougall said.

Diplomatic staff had advised Mr Keane and his other friends, Craig Lough, 30, Mark Skridulaitis, 27, and Mike Guy, 27, all of Wellington, to stay at their hotel in case Mr McDougall tried to contact them.

They thought they had seen their friend on television at a local hospital.

Another New Zealander, Andrew Crook, 26, was outside the Sari Club when the bomb exploded, tearing his clothes and shoes from his body.

A lawyer working in Singapore, he was in Bali for a rugby tournament and survived with cracked ribs, cuts and burns to his arms and face.

Aucklander Eli Nathan, 21, and three friends fled through a rear room at Paddys.

He called his parents, Mike and Rita Nathan, and said he was unhurt, but could not talk long because of other tourists queuing to phone family and friends.

Mr Keane, a finalist in this year's Cleo bachelor of the year contest, and his four friends had arrived in Bali earlier in the day and planned to celebrate his and Mr Lough's 30th birthdays.

Mr Lough had been tired after the flight and stayed at their hotel, but the others were in different parts of Paddys when the car bomb exploded.

Mr Keane said that while helping the blast victims, he had seen the bodies of those killed in Paddys and was confident his friend was not among them.

"I didn't physically look at everyone's face but I know where all the dead people were and he was nowhere near them."

Mr Keane suffered cuts and had flesh torn from a calf. One friend had burns to his ear and hands, and two were having difficulty hearing.

Mr Keane and his friends had spent about 90 minutes at Paddys, which was packed with Western tourists, mainly Australians but also New Zealanders and British. The only Balinese were staff.

Despite his injuries, Mr Keane said, he was still mobile so stayed to help pull people from the wreckage. Paddys did not catch fire until about half an hour after the blast.

"When I went back in, there were no signs of the explosion, there was just a circle of bodies.

"What I think might have happened is there's a wall at Paddys ... and it's just made of really thick glass.

"I think a lot of glass just exploded inwards and just basically went right through a few people.

"There were a few dead people around but we just concentrated on the injured. We knew potentially there might be another bomb and we just had to get people out.

"I just lifted them out and put them on the street."

Those with the worst injuries were taken by taxi to hospitals, while others with less serious injuries were lined up and had to wait for help.

They were carried from the blast area on a surfboard, ladders, planks of wood and chairs.

Mr Lough heard the blast from the hotel a few minutes walk away and went to Paddys to help rescuers.

Mr Keane said he was treated in hospital and when he returned to his hotel many other tourists had packed their bags and were walking to the airport.

He said he would stay in Bali until he had found Dean McDougall.

"Obviously it's not a very safe place to be at the moment. The smart thing to do would be to come back."

He said that despite what he had seen, he felt okay.

"I'm just glad to be alive and just lucky that I was not in the wrong place."

Mr Crook said he stumbled away naked after the blast, and later grabbed a pair of shoes to put on because his feet were being badly cut by broken glass.

At Denpasar Hospital he was still partly deaf from the noise of the blast. He could remember little of what happened, apart from being pulled on board a truck and leaning against an Indonesian man struggling "not to pass out or go into shock".

"It was just like out of a movie. It was surreal. It was horrible."

His skin was blistering from burns to his arms and face, he said, and he was worried about his team-mates, six of whom were still not accounted for.

Mr Nathan had been travelling for nine months and had called his parents just a few hours before the bombings to say he would be home in a fortnight.

Mike Nathan said it had been a relief to hear later that his son was all right.

"It was a crazy morning. I wouldn't put any other parent through it. Our hearts go out to all those other parents."

Former Herald reporter Naomi Larkin, who is in Bali for a conference, was told by witnesses there were bodies lying in the streets after the blast.

"There is twisted, mangled metal, and glass, mud and muck everywhere," she said.

"There is talk that people are trapped under rubble, but they don't seem to be bringing anyone out."

Bali messages

New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families in New Zealand, can post messages on our Bali Messages page.

Foreign Affairs advice to New Zealanders

* Travellers should defer travel to Bali

* NZers in Bali should keep a low profile and remain calm

* Foreign Affairs Hotline: 0800 432 111

Feature: Bali bomb blast

Related links

Pictures from the scene of the blast

Further reading
Feature: Indonesia and East Timor

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