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CNN Live At Daybreak
More Than 180 People Now Confirmed Dead in Bali Bombing
Aired October 14, 2002 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to turn our attention now to the bombings in Indonesia. More than 180 people now confirmed dead and that death toll could more than double. The majority of the victims apparently Australian tourists.
Let's go to CNN's John Vause, who's in Sydney with the very latest from there -- hello, John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Catherine.
Well, the Australians are calling this their September 11. This could, in fact, be the largest loss of Australian life during peacetime. The government has declared Sunday a national day of mourning here, but already this country is in grief and shock. But right now the main focus is for this country to try and bring home its dead and wounded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE (voice-over): Home and safe, the wounded who could travel and others just frightened and desperate to leave, brought back on special commercial flights into the arms of anxious relatives. Their ordeal may be over, but they bring with him horrific memories of the carnage at Kuta Beach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blast knocked everyone flying back on their back and everything was already falling and everyone just tried to get everyone else out the back doorway over the wall.
VAUSE: But with dozens of Australians unaccounted for, there will be difficult days ahead for many families, with fears Australians account for most of the dead. Bali is Australia's most popular overseas destination. Many of those caught up in this attack from sporting teams celebrating the end of the season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had 11 of us came over. We've lost six. I spent the day at the morgue. I've identified five. There's still one we can't find. I don't know if we ever will.
VAUSE: For authorities here, though, the first priority, evacuate the wounded. More than 100 victims of this terrorist attack flown home in C-130s, the first arriving at Darwin Airport in northern Australia. On board, 15 victims, all of them suffering terrible burns, most of them young. One of the injured did not survive the three hour flight from Bali. Some of the more seriously hurt are being evacuated on private jets. Six victims here arriving in Perth. DR. LEN NOTARAS, DARIN HOSPITAL: The sheer magnitude of what has actually occurred is going to take some considerable time to sink into a lot of people, including ourselves here at the hospital. It has been around, you know, since 11th of September.
VAUSE: Agents from Australia's intelligence organization and federal police are now in Bali, working with Indonesian authorities to track down those responsible.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called a special meeting of senior government ministers to consider the country's response.
JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: And it has happened to our own on our doorstep.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Now, Catherine, there are very real concerns here in Australia that there could, in fact, be a terrorist attack on Australian soil and to that end the federal government is announcing a complete review of security arrangements, as well as an overhaul of anti-terrorism laws -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: You know, John, Prime Minister John Howard is visibly shaken by all of this. I know he was just on CNN International. Did you hear what he had to say? Anything new?
VAUSE: We've been listening to the prime minister for most of the day. The prime minister, who is normally an emotional man, a very reserved man, a suburban lawyer from Sydney, he has been showing a great degree of emotion. Yesterday he was almost brought to tears during a press conference. He has been visibly shaken by this.
It's been the same message all throughout the day, that the Australian government will work to hunt down those responsible. But more importantly, the Australian prime minister saying that it will be a measured response, but a powerful response.
CALLAWAY: So many possible fatalities in this. We know the death toll could now double. This, identifying these Australians is going to be a daunting task.
VAUSE: Yes, from what we're understanding about what happened at the bomb site here in Bali, so many of the victims have been burnt, and that's making their identification process so much harder. There are no identifying marks on bodies. There are no tattoos. And so that is what will take many, many days, if at all.
We had this similar problem in New York with the Trade Towers when they came crashing down. You may recall that so many people still from the Trade Towers went unidentified. I think they only identified 700 or 800 of the victims from the Trade Tower collapse in September. And that took many, many months just to get to that death toll. So a very similar situation. And something to put this into perspective, too, for American viewers, with the death toll climbing anywhere into a hundred or so Australian victims, that would equate to about 1,200 Americans who have been killed.
CALLAWAY: Oh, goodness.
All right, John, thank you so much for bringing that to us this morning.
That's John Vause in Sydney.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 14, 2002 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to turn our attention now to the bombings in Indonesia. More than 180 people now confirmed dead and that death toll could more than double. The majority of the victims apparently Australian tourists.
Let's go to CNN's John Vause, who's in Sydney with the very latest from there -- hello, John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Catherine.
Well, the Australians are calling this their September 11. This could, in fact, be the largest loss of Australian life during peacetime. The government has declared Sunday a national day of mourning here, but already this country is in grief and shock. But right now the main focus is for this country to try and bring home its dead and wounded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE (voice-over): Home and safe, the wounded who could travel and others just frightened and desperate to leave, brought back on special commercial flights into the arms of anxious relatives. Their ordeal may be over, but they bring with him horrific memories of the carnage at Kuta Beach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blast knocked everyone flying back on their back and everything was already falling and everyone just tried to get everyone else out the back doorway over the wall.
VAUSE: But with dozens of Australians unaccounted for, there will be difficult days ahead for many families, with fears Australians account for most of the dead. Bali is Australia's most popular overseas destination. Many of those caught up in this attack from sporting teams celebrating the end of the season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had 11 of us came over. We've lost six. I spent the day at the morgue. I've identified five. There's still one we can't find. I don't know if we ever will.
VAUSE: For authorities here, though, the first priority, evacuate the wounded. More than 100 victims of this terrorist attack flown home in C-130s, the first arriving at Darwin Airport in northern Australia. On board, 15 victims, all of them suffering terrible burns, most of them young. One of the injured did not survive the three hour flight from Bali. Some of the more seriously hurt are being evacuated on private jets. Six victims here arriving in Perth. DR. LEN NOTARAS, DARIN HOSPITAL: The sheer magnitude of what has actually occurred is going to take some considerable time to sink into a lot of people, including ourselves here at the hospital. It has been around, you know, since 11th of September.
VAUSE: Agents from Australia's intelligence organization and federal police are now in Bali, working with Indonesian authorities to track down those responsible.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called a special meeting of senior government ministers to consider the country's response.
JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: And it has happened to our own on our doorstep.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Now, Catherine, there are very real concerns here in Australia that there could, in fact, be a terrorist attack on Australian soil and to that end the federal government is announcing a complete review of security arrangements, as well as an overhaul of anti-terrorism laws -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: You know, John, Prime Minister John Howard is visibly shaken by all of this. I know he was just on CNN International. Did you hear what he had to say? Anything new?
VAUSE: We've been listening to the prime minister for most of the day. The prime minister, who is normally an emotional man, a very reserved man, a suburban lawyer from Sydney, he has been showing a great degree of emotion. Yesterday he was almost brought to tears during a press conference. He has been visibly shaken by this.
It's been the same message all throughout the day, that the Australian government will work to hunt down those responsible. But more importantly, the Australian prime minister saying that it will be a measured response, but a powerful response.
CALLAWAY: So many possible fatalities in this. We know the death toll could now double. This, identifying these Australians is going to be a daunting task.
VAUSE: Yes, from what we're understanding about what happened at the bomb site here in Bali, so many of the victims have been burnt, and that's making their identification process so much harder. There are no identifying marks on bodies. There are no tattoos. And so that is what will take many, many days, if at all.
We had this similar problem in New York with the Trade Towers when they came crashing down. You may recall that so many people still from the Trade Towers went unidentified. I think they only identified 700 or 800 of the victims from the Trade Tower collapse in September. And that took many, many months just to get to that death toll. So a very similar situation. And something to put this into perspective, too, for American viewers, with the death toll climbing anywhere into a hundred or so Australian victims, that would equate to about 1,200 Americans who have been killed.
CALLAWAY: Oh, goodness.
All right, John, thank you so much for bringing that to us this morning.
That's John Vause in Sydney.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
