Australian sunbather shot in Bali

Australian sunbather shot in Bali

DENPASAR, Bali: A bullet, apparently from a .9 caliber handgun, struck a 48-year-old Australian sunbather at Kuta in an incident that caused panic among foreign visitors, and presented the local police with a difficult puzzle to solve as to the motive and the identity of the shooter.

"We are still working on it. At this early stage of the investigation it would be very careless of us to jump to any conclusion. At this point, all I can say is that there is a probability that it was not a deliberate shooting," Kuta Police chief Adj. Comr. M Anwar said on Monday afternoon.

The victim, Maree Lyn Savage, and her spouse James Savage, were enjoying their morning sunbathing by the pool at Kuta Beach Hotel, where they were staying during their vacation in Bali.

At 10:30 am, they both heard a slight thud. A few seconds later, Maree Savage noticed a spot of blood on her swimsuit. She had sustained a gunshot to the abdomen.

James Savage immediately notified the hotel management before rushing his wife to the nearby Bali International Medical Center (BIMC).

"We did have a patient by that name. Mrs. Savage was admitted to our facility this morning at 10:52 am, and was discharged one hour later. I don't have any other information nor the authority to disclose her medical condition," BIMC staffer Kelvin Sudarma said.

The Kuta Police chief stressed that Maree Savage had not been fatally shot.

"One reason the 9 mm bullet did not inflict a fatal wound is that there was a substantial distance, perhaps greater than the handgun's effective range, between the shooter and the victim," Adj. Comr. M Anwar said.-- JP