An explosion hit a tourist boat as it departed the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Thursday, killing one foreign woman and injuring 19 other foreigners, police said.
Advertisement
The boat was travelling from the port of Padangbai in eastern Bali to nearby Gili Trawangan islet with 35 people on board when its fuel tank exploded, Karangasem district police chief police chief Sugeng Sudarso said.
Sudarso said the explosion, which occurred when the boat was about 200 meters (220 yards) from the port of departure, shattered its rear windows and upended seating.
“One female passenger died from head injuries”.
Aside from Germany, a manifest showed that passengers were from several other countries, including Britain, France, Italy and Spain.
Police investigating the incident do not yet know what caused it, but they are said to have ruled out a bomb, thankfully.
A spokesman for the British embassy in Jakarta said it was providing assistance to British nationals injured in the blast.
“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”.
Fast recreation boat Gilicat 2 with 35 foreign tourists and 5 crew caught fire after engine explosion off Padang Bai in Bali Indonesia.
Bali and neighbouring Lombok are two of Indonesia’s most popular holiday destinations, with 1.5 million foreign tourists visiting Bali in the first five months of 2015, according to Indonesia Investments.
Around 20 people were reportedly injured on the ferry in the east of the island.
Advertisement
The explosions, determined to be an accident, were thought to have come from the fuel tank of the ferry, which was carrying 129 passengers, a lot of them tourists.
