Lucky escape from Bali bombing horror (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Lucky escape from Bali bombing horror

A SALISBURY man was caught up in the suicide bombings that brought new horror to the island of Bali at the weekend.

Mike Gallagher was sitting in a packed restaurant just two tables from where one of the bombs went off. And after the blast, he carried an injured man out of the shattered restaurant to an ambulance.

In an e-mail from Bali this week, Mr Gallagher said: "The man's wife was also injured and had already been rushed to hospital.

"I was two tables away from the second explosion.

"After the first explosion on the beach, people were generally unsure as to what it was, until the second explosion, when the realisation dawned on us that they were bombs.

"The effect caused a ripple of running people in all directions.

"The scene of total desolation was in place, with whispers of 'Help' from people who had been injured and were half-buried in the sand.

"To think that five minutes earlier the whole place was the busiest I had seen since coming here."

The blast was one of three to hit tourist areas on the Indonesian Island, killing 26 people and injuring 150. Two bombers with explosives strapped to their waists targeted restaurants in the towns of Jimbaran and Kuta.

A third bomb is believed to have been buried in the sand at a beach cafe in Jimbaran. The attacks were Bali's second terrorist outrage in three years.

Two Australians, two Americans and a Japanese, along with at least 12 Indonesians, were among those killed in Saturday night's attacks.

The wounded included 49 Indonesians, 17 Australians, six Americans, six Koreans and four Japanese.

The bombers struck about 8pm on Saturday, as diners flocked to restaurants on the mostly Hindu island.