[Nasional-e] More than 40 killed in Bali explosion

[bhineka@brd.de]

More than 40 killed in Bali explosion
No injuries in second blast near U.S. Consulate

Saturday, October 12, 2002 Posted: 6:42 PM EDT (2242 GMT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) - More than 40 people were killed in one
of two explosions to rock the tourist haven of Bali late Saturday, sources said.

One blast tore through the Sari Club, a popular discotheque in the heart of the
island's nightlife district of Kuta Beach.
The explosion sparked a fire that swept through the area.

The dead include Indonesians and international visitors, hospital sources
said. Police were clearing the scene and said the death toll may rise.

Authorities in Bali said the explosion may have been caused by a bomb. Sources
at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said initial evidence pointed to a car bomb.

A second blast near the U.S. Consulate in Bali resulted in no immediate reports
of casualties.

Bali is a popular holiday destination and particularly popular with Australians.

An official at a local hospital told Reuters that at least 100 people had been
hurt, including Americans and Australians.

U.S. Embassy sources were unable to confirm whether any U.S. tourists were
among the casualties in the disco explosion.

An official with the American Chamber of Commerce said the explosion rattled
windows at least 6 miles (10 km) away.

The blast "felt like an earthquake," Arian Ardie, a vice president at the
organization, told CNN.

Eyewitnesses spoke of chaos in the area after the explosion at the Sari
nightclub as tourists were reveling on a typical Saturday night.

One eyewitness said windows on shops had been blown out hundreds of yards
(meters) away.

"I saw one man, who looked Indonesian, whose head had been blown off," a local
photographer, Murdani Usman, told Reuters.

It was not clear whether the explosions in Bali were related to an earlier blast
Saturday at the Philippi ne Consulate in the port city of Manado on North
Sulwesi Island that caused minor damage but no injuries. Police Lt. Col. Henjke
Kuwara
said the small explosive device had been planted at the fence of building.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the attack in the Philippines.
Manado is a transit point to the southern Philippines, close to where the
Islamic militant Abu Sayyaf group is active.

Blasts follow warnings

There had been warnings recently from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta of possible
violence linked to extremist Muslim groups.

Some critics say Indonesia is the weakest link in the U.S.-led war on terror in
Southeast Asia, partly because the government has concerns about cracking down
on radical Muslim groups for fear of upsetting the vast moderate mainstream.

The U.S. State Department has had a travel warning in effect for Indonesia for
more than a year, but Bali had been widely considered insulated from the
troubles
plaguing much of the rest of the archipelago. The warning specifically mentions
Aceh, West Timor, Irian Jaya, and others.

CNN Producer Atika Shubert contributed to this report