Two die, 18 injured in boat blast off Indonesia’s Bali

AN explosion on a speedboat in Bali left two foreigners dead and 18 other tourists injured yesterday, sparking dramatic scenes as rescuers rushed to haul stunned and bloodied holidaymakers off the vessel.

Dazed passengers, many covered in cuts and bruises, were taken to medical centres on the Indonesian holiday island after the blast, with TV footage showing them being carried on stretchers to ambulances and lying in hospital beds.

An Austrian woman was killed along with a second female foreigner, whose nationality was still being verified.

Two German citizens were injured and nationals from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Spain were also among the passengers.

It appeared to be an accident, the explosion occurring in the fuel tank.

The bomb squad was sent to the scene on an island that has suffered bloody Islamist militant attacks in the past, but authorities quickly ruled out an attack.

Indonesia has a poor maritime safety record and regularly suffers fatal boat accidents, but serious incidents around Bali – which attracts millions of foreign visitors each year – are rare.

The speedboat, carrying about 30 foreign tourists and four crew, had just left Bali’s Padang Bai port yesterday morning en route to the holiday island of Gili Trawangan when the blast occurred.

“The explosion happened five minutes after the boat departed,” police chief Sugeng Sudarso said. The vessel was about 200m out. One woman had died from head injuries soon after the blast, while the Austrian woman had died later in hospital, he said.

Sudarso said he believed a malfunctioning battery near the fuel tank might have caused the accident.

“Based on the testimony [from passengers] and from what I saw at the scene, the explosion came from the fuel tank.”

The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17 000 islands is heavily dependent on ferry services, but the industry has a poor safety record.

Last year, dozens of tourists were injured when small explosions hit a ferry crossing between Bali and nearby Lombok.