Dean Yates, Bali – Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight, killing at least 182 people, many of them foreigners.
The Saturday night blasts, which the United States denounced as a "despicable act of terror", followed persistent reports that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was trying to establish a foothold in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Police said the dead included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, but declined to speculate on who might be responsible for the attack in one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.
Indonesia's president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, said the latest information showed 182 people, mostly foreigners, had been killed in the mainly Hindu corner of the country.
"According to the last report, 182 people were killed and 132 were injured in Bali," she told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting, adding that some were still missing.
A US embassy spokeswoman in Jakarta said a car bomb outside the Sari nightspot in the teeming Kuta Beach nightclub district did most of the damage.
"There were bodies everywhere, people burned were walking around in shock," Amos Libby, a 25-year-old American, told reporters on Sunday at the airport, where he was looking for a flight out. Libby, who was walking nearby at the time, was blown off his feet by the blast but unscathed.
The blast in Bali, a destination popular with everyone from hippies to high-flyers, coincided with heightened security around the world and followed a bomb blast in Finland, another unlikely target, that killed seven people and wounded dozens.
"The United States government condemns in the strongest possible terms this despicable act of terror," a US embassy statement said.
The smell of burnt flesh hung in the air at the scene. Hospital staff said many dead were charred beyond recognition.
"It's nothing quite like anything I've ever seen – there was more blood, the smell of burnt skin and the pain that they were in, you can't really put that into words," Melbourne tourist Martin Lyons told Australia's Nine Network Sunday programme.
Richard Poore, 37, a television presentation director from New Zealand, said hundreds of revellers were inside the Sari. Poore, who filmed the aftermath, had tried to get into the club 20 minutes before the blast – but it was too full.
"I saw limbs lying on the ground," he said. "I got to the stage where I couldn't film any more because it made me feel physically ill," he said. "I've never seen anything like it in 12 years of reporting.
Britain slapped a travel warning on Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago where Islam is traditionally moderate and bloody ethnically based separatist violence has seldom targeted foreign nationals.
Some tourists in Bali, long considered a safe haven for tourists, spoke of leaving for home on the first available flights. Airlines officials said some airlines were planning extra flights or or bigger planes.
The main blast at the Sari club, one of two explosions, blew a hole in the ground. One visitor said terrified tourists had left their hotel rooms to sleep in open areas or on the beach after the attack.
Windows were blown out in buildings within a 500-metre radius of the Sari club and wrecked up to 15 cars whose mangled wreckage littered the streets.
Last week, regional security sources said the United States was considering withdrawing some embassy personnel from Indonesia after a grenade blast in the capital raised questions about Jakarta's ability to provide security.
The United States and Singapore, which has detained dozens of people in a crackdown on what it says is a Southeast Asian terror network, have been pressing Indonesia to arrest Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir they describe as a pivotal player in the group.
Indonesia says it has no evidence to link Bashir to Jemaah Islamiah, as the group is known and which in turn has been linked to al Qaeda.
The United States blames al Qaeda for last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
A spate of blasts
Bali police spokesman Yatim Suyatmo said police believed all the explosive devices were home-made bombs. The US embassy spokeswoman said the third explosion occurred 50 metres from the honorary US consulate in Sanur, another tourist area about 30 minutes from Kuta. No one was hurt in that incident.
Earlier, a suspected home-made bomb knocked over the gate and smashed windows in the compound of the Philippine consulate in the Indonesian city of Manado. No one was hurt.
Downer said there were about 40 Australians in hospitals in Bali and of those about 15 were seriously injured. Visitors included a number of Australians celebrating the end of various football season competitions.
Simon Quayle, coach of the Kingsley Football Club, an amateur team in suburban Perth, said eight players were missing after the team members had gone to the Sari club. "We have no idea where they are or what position they are in," he told ABC television.
An officer said the explosions had occurred virtually simultaneously at around 11.30pm.
Before dawn on Sunday, flames licked into the air around the rubble of the Sari as tourists carried victims away from the carnage, many half-naked and moaning in pain. "The Sari club is gone. You can smell the bodies of those who died," one local photographer said.
A police officer said it was difficult to identify victims. "They have been completely charred," he added.
Some critics say Indonesia is a weak link in the US-led war on terror in Southeast Asia, adding that the government is reluctant to crack down on radical Muslim groups for fear of upsetting the moderate mainstream.
Indonesia is 85 percent Muslim. Bali is particularly popular with Australians and Japanese nationals. "The impact on Bali will be major. Look at the large number of foreigners in this," one foreign risk consultant, who declined to be identified, said in Jakarta.