Bombing turns paradise siland into hell<\/p>\n
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali<\/p>\n
It was a Saturday night inferno on a strip of road in Kuta,
\nforeign holidaymakers' heaven, that nobody will ever forget.<\/p>\n
The explosion at around 11:15 p.m. was so powerful it was
\nheard 20 kilometers away and felt 10 km away.<\/p>\n
The bomb was believed to be detonated with a remote control
\njust a few meters from the front of the Sari Club, a bar and
\nclubbing spot which only admits foreigners. The blast left a 1.5
\nmeter deep crater measuring 5m by 4m in diameter.<\/p>\n
Other evidence of the immense force of the explosion was the
\nwreckage of two vans lying upside down on a building across the
\nstreet from the Sari Club.<\/p>\n
The explosion sent the two cars high into the air before they
\nlanded 15 meters away. The explosion also severely damaged 16
\nother cars, including a mini van with four people trapped inside
\nwho were burned to death.<\/p>\n
\"I heard two explosions. The first one was loud enough to
\nforce everybody in the club to cover their ears, but the second
\nwas much, much louder, and it virtually swept everybody to the
\nground. Then suddenly the whole place was engulfed by fire, and
\nin no time at all the burning roof started crumbling down,\" a
\nsurvivor of the attack, Darren Burton told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
A native of Adelaide, Australia, Burton and his rugby team
\nwere visiting Bali for a rugby exhibition.<\/p>\n
\"I think we are very lucky. We found a hole in the wall and
\njumped through it. There were around 10 of us that went through
\nthat way. The club was very full at that time, there were
\nprobably 100 or 200 people inside the club when the explosion
\ntook place,\" Burton said.<\/p>\n
When Darren Burton and his friends made it to safety the Sari
\nClub was flattened, with fire engulfing three large buildings,
\nincluding the Panin Bank building and the popular Paddy's Club,
\nacross the street from the Sari Club. Soon all the southern side
\nof Legian street was ablaze.<\/p>\n
Firefighters from Denpasar and Badung bravely attempted to
\nextinguish the fire in total darkness as the electricity was cut.
\nIt was total chaos. The clubgoers frantically looked for their
\nlost friends and hundreds of curious locals clogged the scene,
\ndoing practically nothing but watching, and, often, hampering the
\nfirefighters' work.<\/p>\n
Things slowly improved only two hours later when the police's
\nelite Mobile Brigade cordoned off the area, and leaders of Desa
\nAdat (customary village) called in the members of it's youth
\nactivists and traditional guards to help the firefighters.<\/p>\n
At around 1.30 am local time on Sunday, the firefighters
\nmanaged to get the fire under control. Yet, when the fire died
\nout, the thick smoke emanating from the burned buildings smelled
\nof burned human flesh. This made them aware that a great number
\nof bodies were trapped in the buildings.<\/p>\n
\"I was so overwhelmed by that realization. I stood there
\nlooking at the gory scenery; a headless corpse over there, dead
\nbodies piled up next to a wooden table bar, limbs lay all over
\nthe place. The bomber must be someone without a heart,\" a local
\nMoslem figure, Haji Bambang said.<\/p>\n
It was Haji Bambang, who led the initial evacuation process.
\nHe instructed local Muslim youths to go the nearby mosque and
\nfetch stretchers and as much white linen as they could find.<\/p>\n
Braving occasional small explosions caused by cooking-gas
\nbottles, Haji Bambang led the youths to the area where the
\nglittering Sari Club once stood.<\/p>\n
They carefully loaded a corpse on the stretcher, covered it
\nwith white linen, and took it to the waiting vans and ambulances.
\nThey continued working in silence for a while before they found a
\npile of six bodies; a woman lying on her back, her hands drawn
\nout; a couple tightly hugging each other in the final moment of
\ndeath.<\/p>\n
\"Be careful so as not to drop it, and treat the body with
\nrespect as if it is the body of your own brothers and sisters,\"
\nHaji Bambang told his volunteers.<\/p>\n
His tremendous energy and down-to-earth leadership -- he
\nspeaks high-Balinese fluently -- inspired the majority of
\nonlookers to join the evacuation efforts.<\/p>\n
At around 5.30 am, when all the injured victims had been moved
\nto the 13 medical facilities in and around Denpasar, and most of
\nthe corpses had been sent to the Sanglah Central Hospital, people
\nhad the chance to see the scene clearly.<\/p>\n
\"The area was totally obliterated. We are doomed. We can
\nalways rebuild the place, but can we rebuild the sense of peace
\nand friendliness this place once offered after all this terror?\"
\na local man asked, a question that everybody also wondered about.<\/p>\n
Several kilometers away in a housing complex in Jimbaran, a
\nleader of the local Muslim student's association received a
\nmessage on his cellular-phone. Hindu youths from Legian were on a
\nrampage, blaming Muslims for the bombing, and had started
\n\"sweeping\" operations against Muslims, the message said.<\/p>\n
Similar messages were received and re-sent through dozens of
\ncellular phones throughout the day, causing panic and confusion
\namong the local Muslim minority.<\/p>\n
The explosion is feared to affect the delicate interfaith
\nrelations in the Island of God.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bombing-turns-paradise-siland-into-hell-1447893297",
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