Two dead, 13 injured after explosion on Bali tourist boat

Two people have been killed and 13 foreigners injured after a blast erupted in the engine of a tourist boat that had just departed Bali.

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 a 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.

Local media reports suggested a Dutch national and an Indonesian had been killed in the blast.

The injured passengers included nationals from Portugal, Germany, and Britain, according to preliminary information from the police.

Unconfirmed reports said an Australian was among the injured, however this has not been independently verified.

"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."

The boat was carrying 35 passengers, all of whom were foreigners, and four crew, and had just left Padang Bai port in eastern Bali this morning when the blast occurred.

"The explosion happened five minutes after the boat departed," local police chief Sugeng Sudarso told AFP, adding the vessel had been about 200 metres (yards) from the port.

"One female passenger died from head injuries."

With AFP