- Australian casualties would be "very high",
but not all those currently missing would be found to be dead, Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer said today.
-
- Twenty Australians have been confirmed dead but with
more than 160 Australians still missing; the final toll is expected to
climb significantly.
-
- Mr Downer, speaking in Bali after laying a wreath at
the site of Saturday's deadly bomb blast, said based on calls from families
looking for relatives or friends, the number of missing Australians stood
at 160 to 170.
-
- "But that's not to say that's the number of casualties,
fatalities there will be," he told reporters.
-
- "I think you would be at the extreme end of pessimism
if you thought that the number of Australian casualties was anything like
that high, but I must say our expectation is that the number of Australia
casualties will nevertheless be very high."
-
- Mr Downer said the overall death toll, currently around
183, was likely to climb further.
-
- "There are likely to be others killed ... who were
simply blown to pieces by the blast," he said.
-
- Mr Downer said the "appalling" scene of devastation
outside the Sari Club was enough to break anyone's heart.
-
- He and Justice Minister Chris Ellison laid wreaths among
the debris of the club, which was packed with Australians when the car-bomb
exploded on Saturday night.
-
- "It drives home to anyone the level of terrorism,
of mass murder that we have seen in Bali on the evening of October 12,"
Mr Downer said.
-
- Australia's Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia Neil Mules
earlier said the families of 20 Australians had been told their loved ones
were dead.
-
- "We're now working on a list ... of around 160 Australians
who we have reason to believe may have been in the area, so we are bringing
the list down now to the people of more real concern to us," he said.
-
- Mr Mules said all the injured Australians had been evacuated
from the island.
-
- "There are no Australian injured still in hospital;
all of the ones who were in hospital have been evacuated to Australia now,"
he said.
-
- Australian Embassy official Kirk Coningham said 196 Australians
had been evacuated with injuries suffered in Saturday's bombing, 16 of
them in critical condition and 40 more on stretchers.
-
- Australia had also offered to evacuate injured Indonesians
to Australia for treatment, Mr Downer said.
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- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/15/1034561151821.html
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