Two killed, 18 others injured in Bali tourist boat blast
The explosion may have been caused by a short circuit in a battery near the fuel tank
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An explosion on a speedboat in Bali left two foreigners dead and 18 other tourists injured Thursday, 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 while nationals from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Spain were also among the passengers.
It appeared to be an accident with the explosion occurring in the fuel tank. The bomb squad was initially deployed to the scene on an island that has suffered bloody Islamist militant attacks in the past, but authorities quickly ruled out an attack.
The speedboat, which was carrying some 30 foreign tourists and four crew, had just left Padang Bai port in Bali on Thursday morning en route to the holiday island of Gili Trawangan when the blast occurred.
“The explosion happened five minutes after the boat departed,” local police chief Sugeng Sudarso said, adding the vessel had been about 200 metres from the port.
Based on the testimony [from passengers] and from what I saw on the scene, the explosion came from the fuel tank
One woman died from head injuries soon after the blast while the Austrian woman died later in hospital, he said.
Sudarso said he believed a malfunctioning battery near the fuel tank may 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,” he said.
“Above it was a battery, maybe there was a short circuit that affected the fuel tank.”
The British embassy in Jakarta said it was providing assistance to British nationals affected by the explosion.
The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on ferry services but the industry has a poor safety record and fatal accidents are common.
The explosions were an accident and thought to have come from the fuel tank of the ferry, which was carrying 129 passengers, most of them tourists.
However fears have also been growing in Indonesia that radicals who have headed to fight with the Islamic State (IS) group in the Middle East could encourage supporters back home to launch attacks, or may launch attacks themselves on their return.
Bali has been attacked by Islamic radicals before. In 2002, more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed in bombings on the island.
A pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Indonesia, Bali attracts millions of foreign visitors every year due to its palm-fringed, tropical beaches and picture-postcard temples.
