- A female terrorist is suspected of planting the Bali
nightclub bomb which killed nearly 200 people.
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- Eyewitnesses have told international investigators they
saw the woman, believed to be Indonesian, jump from a minibus packed with
explosives and flee in a waiting car late last Saturday night.
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- Moments later, the massive bomb which claimed the lives
of at least 30 British tourists, was detonated outside the Sari nightclub.
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- Seconds earlier a smaller bomb went off in Paddy's Bar
opposite. Other eye witnesses told how they saw a plastic bag thrown into
the pub bar shortly before the first explosion which saw terrified young
holidaymakers run towards the second device.
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- Last night Bali police commissioner Yatim Soyatomo confirmed
the net was closing on the female bomber.
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- "The police team and our international colleagues
know about the woman who parked the minivan outside the club," he
said.
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- A senior Australian Federal Police officer in Bali said:
"We are following up strong information that a woman was seen leaving
the scene."
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- Witnesses have described how a team of eight bombers
blocked the narrow nightclub strip, allowing traffic to clear in front
so they could guarantee a speedy getaway.
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- One driver told police he was angry at being stuck in
traffic outside the Sari club just minutes before the bomb went off.
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- Local newspaper editor Herman Basbuk, who also spoke
to the witness, said last night: "This man wanted to move out of the
parking place he was in, but he couldn't because there was one vehicle
stopped in the road for a long time. Behind that car, there was another
vehicle parked directly in front of the club.
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- "The man saw the woman get out of the minivan and
get into a car that was blocking the road. He couldn't remember what she
was wearing because it was dark."
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- Police have since confirmed it was a mobile bomb in the
minivan, a Mitsubishi L-300, packed with the military high explosive C4
and chemicals RDA, AMX and nitrate.
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- "Once she got in, the first car moved and the eyewitnesses
could also go. He followed the woman's car for some seconds and then there
was a huge explosion."
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- In the confusion that followed, the man lost the woman's
car and was unable to tell police in which direction it went.
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- Police have said they are sure the bomb was set off by
a timing device or by remote control.
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- Other people have told how they witnessed the smaller
explosion seconds earlier in Paddy's Bar.
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- Nattallia Sinclaire, wife of the bar's owner, told how
a member of staff had seen a man walk into the bar and throw in a plastic
bag full of explosives.
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- The woman, who is recovering in hospital from burns told
her: "I will never forget his face as long as I live."
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- The barmaid believes the man was also an Indonesian.
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- British backpackers yesterday held candlelit vigils on
local beaches and laid flowers close to the bomb site, despite Foreign
Office advice to leave the island.
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- Families of victims of the Bali bombing have called on
the Australian Government to buy the site of the gutted nightclub and turn
it into a permanent memorial to those who died.
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- Much of the south-east Asia region remained on high alert
after a series of further terrorist threats as the bodies of four British
blast victims were flown home.
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- Work on DNA, dental and other identification checks were
stepped up in Bali with the arrival of 68 more Australian and international
specialists.
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- The man co-ordinating the operation, Police Superintendent
Andrew Telfer of the South Australian police, conceded yesterday that the
painstaking examination of corpses and body parts could take "months
rather than weeks."
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- DNA testing is currently being carried out in Australian
capital, Canberra on 46 victims. Evidence of visual identification by relatives
alone was ruled insufficient and DNA would prove vital in the worst cases
where only a few body parts remained.
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- The reinforcements were as a direct result of the visit
of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was shocked when he was told
about the horror of one Australian national who believed he had located
his wife.
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- After filling out a form to claim her body, the man was
informed the tags had fallen off the bodies, which were being trampled
on and moved around because they were lying in the open air. The man's
wife was lost all over again.
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- "It wasn't a morgue, it was a footpath," said
the man. "Bodies were lying in this chaos for the first two days on
a tiled walkway. They were out in the heat, there was no ice. Emergency
services just couldn't cope. It was Hell."
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