Burglars injure Australian woman

Burglars injure Australian woman

DENPASAR: In what was apparently an attempted burglary gone wrong, two unidentified men assaulted and severely injured an Australian woman pre-dawn on Tuesday after they broke into her room at a hotel in Bali's popular resort area of Jimbaran.

The woman was later identified as 45-year-old Julie McNally. She arrived in Bali on March 18, 2005, and was staying at the Jimbaran Hill Hotel.

The attempted burglary took place at around 02.00 a.m. Julie was sound asleep next to her six-year-old son when a suspicious sound woke her up. Apparently, two men had managed to scale the hotel's outer wall and gained entry to the room after rigging its window.

The burglars attacked Julie when they realized that she was awake, causing serious injury. Police are investigating the case.

The burglary was the latest in a string of violent crimes targeting Westerners in Bali. Previously, an Italian woman was murdered and an Italian man assaulted in two separate incidents in the area of Tibubeneng, Kuta. -- JP