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Bali: Enquiries streaming in
18/10/2002 09:05 - (SA)
Marco Bouwer, Die Burger
Taipei - Since the news about the Bali bomb explosions became known, South Africans in Taiwan have been desperately searching for friends and family in Bali.
Vish Badal of the consulate said the South African consulate in Taipei has been inundated with an unprecedented number of enquiries from South Africans in and outside Taiwan.
Greg Assink (29) from Johannesburg, captain of the Taipei Baboons rugby team, who was in Bali for a tournament when the bombs exploded, was spending the evening with team-mates at the Sari Club.
He said on Thursday: "A few seconds after the first explosion, which sounded like a gunshot, the second bomb exploded."
"The side wall and roof collapsed on us. I lay there for some time - I don't know how long - before I realised that I had to get out. Next to me, six team-mates were struggling to get out from underneath the debris and fallen roof beams. The place was on fire and people were moaning in pain.
"We searched for team-mates among the rubble. It was chaos," said Assink.
Andrew Faull (22), a South African member of the team, said he was shopping 100m from the club when the bombs exploded.
"The force of the blast threw us against the floor. The street went dark as the power cut and it was dead quiet. Slowly an enormous cloud of smoke rose above the place where the bomb had exploded."
Faull then went to hospital.
"The injured kept arriving. Also friends and family hoping to find their loved ones. There was blood everywhere. It was one big mess."
Robbie-John Schulenburg (30), a South African and captain of the Taichung rugby team, said he saw horrible scenes. "It was shocking. The worst was the number of teenagers who died."
On Sunday a memorial service will be held in Taipei for relatives who believe their loved ones are dead.
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