Articles - Regional News

72 1024x768

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE

An Indonesian law student was this week facing up to 20 years in jail after he was accused of maliciously starting a fire at acclaimed Surabaya nightspot Redboxx in which ten people died.

The club’s resident DJ and an Australian and Japanese national were amongst the victims who were killed in what police said was a revenge attack launched by Christian Natalino after he became angry at staff refusing to play a reggae track he requested.

While one newspaper reported that Natalino set fire to a foam sofa with a lighter, chief detective Adj. Comr. Arbaridi Jumhur from Surabaya Police told the Jakarta Globe he lit a curtain as revellers watched a world cup soccer game.

“The suspect said his initial intention was only to trigger panic among Redboxx staffs,” Detective Jumhur told the Globe, “But the flame spread and it was beyond his expectation,” Arbaridi said. (Jakarta Globe: http://tinyurl.com/34jl7z4 )

The tragedy happened just days after 42 Full Moon Party revellers almost drowned in neighbouring South East Asian country Thailand after two speedboats collided in the seas off Koh Pan Ghan party island.

Press reports revealed one of the boats, the Sawasdi Chalermchoke Nawa 5 was the same speed boat which capsized leaving the party in 2005, causing 12 partygoers to die.

Five Australians were hospitalized with spinal injuries following the latest accident, including 18 year old evangelical Christian Katie Pritchard.

"We were all screaming, 'It's another boat coming', and the next thing I remember is we were just bracing. I grabbed someone, I was down on the bottom of the boat, and the next thing I remember is just hitting black,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald, recalling the collision.

"The next thing I remember is being underwater with bits of wood and not being able to get up and thinking I was going to die, that I was going to drown,” she added.



Article by Jonty Skrufff (http://skrufff.com): Follow Jonty on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jontyskrufff

< Prev		Next >