Indonesia ferry blast kills two, injures 13

JAKARTA: An explosion on a ferry carrying 35 tourists between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok on Thursday (Sep 15) killed two people, an Indonesian and a Dutch national, and injured 13, police said.

“Two of them died, 13 were injured,” Bali police spokesman Made Sudana said, adding the explosion happened off the coast of Lombok.

“It seems there was some sort of explosion on the boat, so there was an emergency with the engine.”

Tourists on board included Australian, Korean, British, French, and German citizens, according to media. Bali and neighbouring Lombok are two of Indonesia’s most popular holiday destinations.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion on the speedboat and police said the bomb squad had been deployed to investigate. However Indonesia has a poor maritime safety record and there have been similar incidents in the past where no foul play was detected.

Authorities said the woman killed on the boat, which was heading for the nearby holiday island of Gili Trawangan, was a foreigner but that they were verifying her identity before releasing more details.

‘EXPLOSION CAME FROM FUEL TANK’: POLICE CHIEF

“Based on the testimony (from passengers) and from what I saw on the scene, the explosion came from the fuel tank,” local police chief Sugeng Sudarso said. “Above it was a battery, maybe there was a short circuit that affected the fuel tank.”

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.

Last year, dozens of tourists were injured when small explosions hit a ferry crossing between Bali and the neighbouring holiday island of Lombok.

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.

In January, a gun and suicide bomb attack claimed by IS in the capital Jakarta left four attackers and four civilians dead.

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.