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'There was singed hair and skin and a lot of screaming'

Julie Middleton,In Kuta Beach
Monday 14 October 2002 00:00 BST
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Richard Keane was sitting in Paddy's Irish Pub when the explosion threw him from his chair.

"There were two blasts," Mr Keane told The Independent. "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. 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."

Paddy's and the Sari Club – two of the most popular nightspots along the Jalan Legian strip – were particularly busy on Saturday night.

Bali was playing host to rugby teams from across south-east Asia gathered for end of season tournaments and keen to party.

Sari's had the distinction of refusing entry to locals. Under its thatched Balinese-style roof, the patrons were downing huge bongs of Bintang beer.

Paddy's, with its bottle-juggling bartenders, resident rock band and techno dance room, was pulsating and bursting at the seams.

Mr Keane, a New Zealander, who had been with three friends at Paddy's, started to haul the wounded and dying from the wreckage. "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 left him there and got other people."

Twenty-five players from Australia's Platypi Rugby club had arrived in Bali only eight hours earlier, checked into their hotel and gone straight to the famous bar. "I reckon the place had 300 people in there and probably 250 were Australians," said Simon Quayle, their coach.

Ben and Joe Norton from Kent had just left Paddy's when they heard the first small bang. Then they turned around to see a brilliant orange flash and heard the booming explosion of the car bomb that blew apart the Sari Club. "It was surreal," Mr Norton said. "You can't believe you're really there. It's something you see on the telly, but it never happens to you."

Those nearest the front doors of both bars died instantly. Others were initially saved by the sheer density of the crowd. But no one escaped the fierce blast of flame as the high thatched roof went up.

Blair Robertson, 23, was at the rear of the club. The Australian said: "We had a little bit of space. It was pretty crowded and a lot of people who died would have been in the front of the nightclub,"

Kylie Denae, a 35-year-old Australian flight attendant had pulled up in a taxi at the Sari Club with a friend when a huge explosion incinerated the two taxis in front of her.

She saw bodies come flying out of the open-air bar. Blood and glass were everywhere. A man lay on the street in front of her with his legs blown off. "I just thought I had to get the hell out of there," Ms Denae said. "There were people with limbs missing. There were naked people running down the street on fire."

Queuing at the airport last night, Ms Denae said she had to leave. She had arrived on Friday for a two-week holiday, but the part of Bali she had come to cherish had disappeared in a ball of fire. "There are 22,000 Australians on this island and they all want get out," she said. "I'm glad to get out. It's dark again. What will happen tonight? These people are fanatics."

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