Bali bombings: ’Dead all around us’ – first cop on scene finally describes terrorism horror

Through nothing but fate, Glen McEwen was the first cop on the scene of the Bali bombing – it’s taken him 20 years to finally talk about what he saw.

It has taken 20 years for Glen McEwen to speak about the night he sat in a bar in Bali, heard a bang and then the lights went out.

The then Australian Federal Police Acting Superintendent was not in Paddy’s Bar or the Sari Club but another night spot on the Kuta strip.

By default he was the first cop on the scene.

Not being in the immediate blast zone of the 2002 Bali terror attack gave him a clear head to deal with the crisis in those first crucial 48 hours.

But it has taken this long for him to speak in detail about events of that night and his diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which partly led to his early retirement from the force.

Glen McEwen, former AFP commander who was first on the scene at the Bali bombings. Pictured at the Bali bombing memorial in Goldstein Reserve, Coogee. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“There was a massive boom and all the lights went out and we left there (at the bar) and saw the flames and glow,” Mr McEwen recalled.

“We ran down the road but nothing could prepare us for what we then saw”.

With him that night was his then Australian Federal Police colleague Michael Kelsey.

Both were off duty but in Bali on official police business – in Mr McEwen’s case dealing with a people smuggling case.

On that fateful night of October 12, Mr McEwen immediately rang superiors in Australia and told them of the devastation playing out before him.

He wasn’t sure if it was a gas explosion or something else but either way he knew there would be mass casualties – including Australians.

The immediate aftermath of the bombing. Picture: AFP

“They (Canberra) got onto whatever they had to do and Mick and I rushed back in to try and help people,” Mr McEwen said.

“There was dead all around us, bodies, the injured. I remember a row of cars along Jalan Legian which to this day, is still hard to comprehend.

“They were all fire damaged, totally burnt but there was still skeletons holding onto the steering wheels with smoke coming off them, many of them taxi drivers, the explosion didn’t blow them away, I couldn’t understand that,” he said.

Listen to the AFP’s new podcast Operation ALLIANCE: 2002 Bali Bombings

Escorting Prime Minister John Howard about the Sari Club bomb blast site in Kuta with AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty days after the attack.

Australian Federal Police investigators walk through debris at the Bali nightclub bombing site October 17, 2002 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Picture: Edy Purnomo/Getty Images

“The place was so packed with cars and taxis, no emergency services could get in.

“It was chaos. We did what we had to do to a point, helping people out of the fire and putting them on motorbikes.

“We didn’t know these people. They were maimed, injured and burnt and we just put them on motorbikes and they (locals) were taking them to hospital. There was no co-ordination it was just gut instinct, the whole place was a fireball”.

Glen McEwen’s PTSD as a result of the bombings, partly let to his early retirement from the force. Sydney. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr McEwen – who only this month has been able to bring himself to visit the Bali Memorial in Coogee in Sydney’s east – recalled many of the injured were in such a state of shock they couldn’t talk.

“I quickly realised it had to be bigger than a f***ing gas bottle, the spread of devastation was significant”.

Australian Federal Police commander Glen McEwen attends the 15th commemoration of the Bali bombing in Legian, Kuta. Picture: Lukman S.Bintoro

Mr McEwen spoke of coming across an Australian mother from Western Australia desperate for a mobile phone to contact her husband and daughter.

PODCAST: GUARDIANS OF THE DEAD: THE BALI BOMBINGS

“[The mother] grabbed me and asked if she could use my phone because it was her daughter’s 18th birthday and her father had taken her to the Sari club to celebrate and for some reason the mother didn’t go.

“She rang and it went to voicemail and that was one of the first on the missing persons list were those two.”

Police at the site of the bombing, four days after the attack. Picture: Getty

Mr McEwen also called the Australian consul general and knowing many from the Australian embassy in Jakarta were in Bali for a sporting event, also co-ordinated for the Australian Defence Force to go to the hospital to start identifying Australian victims.

His final act before reinforcements arrived was to work with local police to secure the crime scene and morgue before he went back to Jakarta to craft out an agreement for how authorities would work together.

He was awarded an OAM for his service during the Bali bomb and victim identification process known as Operation Alliance.

Before retiring Commander McEwen was in charge of the AFP contingent for the Thai boys cave rescue operation.