Terror attacks

The Foreign Office has issued updated travel advice for Indonesia after violent riots erupted across the country, leaving seven people dead and hundreds injured in the worst unrest the nation has seen for years

Brits planning a holiday to Bali have been issued an urgent safety warning as violent riots break out across Indonesia, resulting in seven fatalities and hundreds of injuries in the worst unrest the country has experienced in years.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice due to the increasing risk of civil disorder and terror attacks, following intense street fights between police and protesters throughout the vast archipelago.

The lethal chaos was sparked by public outrage over extravagant new parliamentary perks, leading to widespread demonstrations that have rapidly spread from the capital Jakarta to cities nationwide. This news comes as a report exposed the inside of the hellhole jail where British Angel Delight drug smugglers face terrifying ‘threats’.

Rampaging crowds have set regional parliament buildings ablaze, embarked on extensive looting sprees and engaged in fierce clashes with security forces as the political crisis intensifies.

The death toll continues to rise, with three individuals losing their lives in Makassar after irate protesters torched a parliament building, resulting in scenes of complete devastation, reports the Express.

The violence took a dramatic turn when 21 year old ride-hailing driver Affan Kurniawan was tragically killed by a police vehicle in Jakarta, sparking national outrage and igniting further waves of anti-government anger.

A student tragically lost his life during violent clashes in Yogyakarta, while a pensioner pedicab driver passed away after inhaling tear gas during confrontations in Solo, adding to the growing human toll of the political chaos.

Jakarta’s health office has confirmed a shocking 469 people have been injured since the violence erupted, with nearly 100 needing hospital treatment for their injuries.

President orders crackdown as terror threat looms

President Prabowo Subianto expressed his shock and disappointment over the killing of Kurniawan but has commanded police and military forces to take the “firmest possible action” against rioters as the situation spirals out of control.

“There are signs of unlawful acts, even leading to treason and terrorism,” he cautioned in a chilling statement that highlights the severity of the crisis engulfing the nation.

Rehayu Saraswati, a member of the ruling party, admitted the scale of the protests had taken the government by surprise.

She confessed to the BBC: “I don’t think any of us saw this coming. It happened very, very quickly within a matter of days.”

But she dismissed accusations that the government had been deaf to public concerns, adding: “We understand that the situation is difficult, and that the economy has been quite, I would say, challenging for some people.

“The recently announced cuts to the parliamentary budget and allowances are a way to show that we are listening.”

Molotov cocktails and snipers as military deployed

The violence has escalated to worrying levels, with protestors lobbing Molotov cocktails and firecrackers at police lines in Bandung, while thousands more have taken to the streets across Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Sulawesi.

Troops have been dispatched across Jakarta in scenes eerily similar to military rule, with snipers stationed in key strategic areas, checkpoints set up throughout the city, and schools forced to shut due to safety concerns.

The United Nations has called on Indonesia to probe allegations of “disproportionate force” used by police against demonstrators, underlining global concern over the spiralling crisis.

Protestors dismiss government concessions

Despite government efforts to defuse the situation, protest leaders have rejected the concessions – including scrapping the controversial allowance and banning overseas trips for MPs – as pitifully insufficient.

Muzammil Ihsan, leader of the country’s largest student group, delivered a resolute message: “The government must resolve deep-rooted problems.

“The anger on the streets is not without cause.”

Political pundits have cautioned that the unrest presents the first significant challenge for Subianto’s presidency and could seriously rattle investor confidence, with Indonesia’s stock index already plunging more than three percent on Monday as markets responded to the turmoil.

Foreign Office issues urgent travel warning

The UK Foreign Office is now urging British holidaymakers to avoid protests and large gatherings, emphasising that peaceful demonstrations can quickly turn violent.

In its updated travel advice, the FCDO warned: “Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Indonesia. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreign nationals.

“Potential targets can include beach resorts, hotels, bars and restaurants, markets and shopping malls, tourist attractions, places of worship, foreign embassies, polling stations, ferry terminals and airports.”

Travellers are being advised to remain extra alert during national holidays, religious festivals and elections, when the terror threat becomes particularly acute.

Bali’s hidden perils revealed

Apart from the ongoing political turmoil, Bali presents considerable dangers that many British tourists don’t realise until it’s far too late.

Authorities have spotlighted worrying accounts of sexual attacks, drink tampering cases, methanol poisoning from fake alcohol, and violent bag-snatching in bustling tourist areas.

Holiday-makers are being urged to monitor drinks being made at all times, steer clear of potentially fatal homemade alcohol, and only buy drinks from properly authorised establishments to prevent poisoning.

The FCDO has also raised concerns about the ongoing risk of opportunistic theft and elaborate cons designed to exploit unwary tourists. British holidaymakers should pack only vital belongings, safeguard passports and bank cards constantly, and stick to licensed taxi firms like Bluebird, Silverbird or Express – whilst thoroughly verifying drivers correspond with app reservations.

Authorities issued a blunt warning that no overseas journey is entirely without danger, stating: “Read all advice carefully and ensure you have comprehensive travel insurance.”

It’s been 20 years since Dan Biddle fatefully missed his stop on the Circle Line train. Twenty years since Mohammad Sidique Khan looked him in the eye and reached inside his backpack. And 20 years since Dan’s cosy happy life was, quite literally, blown apart.

It’s been 20 years since Dan Biddle fatefully missed his stop on the Circle Line train. Twenty years since Mohammad Sidique Khan looked him in the eye and reached inside his backpack. And 20 years since Dan’s cosy happy life was, quite literally, blown apart.

On Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be among 400 people in St Paul’s Cathedral paying their respects to the 52 killed and more than 770 injured in the London suicide bombings of July 7, 2005.

But for Dan – 7/7’s most severely-injured survivor – the day will also mark another anniversary. It’s been 19 years since Dan left hospital and he’s been fighting for an inquiry into what was known. He and countless others want and need answers.

Now instead of tears and platitudes from Britain’s great and the good on Monday, Dan, who can be seen in new Netflix series Attack on London Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, is calling on Starmer to put right what Tony Blair once did wrong – and finally grant the 7/7 victims their long called-for public inquiry.

He says: “We don’t need tears. We don’t need platitudes. We need our public inquiry. And we need answers to the questions we still have. It’s been 20 years – Now is the time to do it.”

Meanwhile there’s one person Dan won’t be wanting to speak with, if, as expected, he attends: Tony Blair. He was prime minister at the time of the attack and blocked the initial plea for an independent public inquiry. The War in Iraq was also cited as one of the motivations for the bloodbath in the bombers’ confession videos.

“I don’t think I could sit in a room with him [Blair] and not use a large amount of expletives, because the anger is always there,” explains Dan, now 46. “I firmly believe 7/7 could have been prevented, and I’ve got to live it with that knowledge. And I cannot believe Blair would be so naive to think that if we go to war, there’s not going to be repercussions in this country. When I think of the money he earns giving talks about it”

The 46-year-old first renewed appeals for Starmer to reconsider an inquiry through the Mirror last month. But he’s vowed to keep on asking.

Hundreds of families were affected that day in 2005 when four suicide bombers, led by primary school assistant Mohammad Sidique Khan unleashed the deadliest terror attacks in Britain since Lockerbie.

Armed with backpacks filled with homemade explosives, Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, both from Beeston, Leeds, and father-of-one Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, Bucks, boarded three morning rush hour tube trains. Around 8.49am they set off the explosives on circle line trains near Edgware Road and Russell Square stations and a Piccadilly Line train near Aldgate station, killing six, seven and 26.

A fourth bomber, Hasib Hussain, 18, also from Leeds, detonated his device an hour later on the top deck of the Number 30 bus, which had been diverted via Tavistock Square, killing 13. It’s believed his device initially failed.

On the morning of July 7 2005, Dan boarded a circle line train towards Edgware Road, a 26-year-old 6ft4in football-mad construction manager. Then in a flash of the explosion, everything changed. Dan lost both legs, an eye and his spleen and had a pole speared through his abdomen after being one to the victims of the Edgware Road blast.

He perforated his colon, burst his eardrum, lacerated his liver, was covered in burns and spent eight weeks in a coma. He now faces a daily battle with Complex PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and survivor’s guilt.

It later emerged Khan was known to intelligence services but was not considered a high priority. The Government’s internal 2009 Intelligence and Security Committee review concluded the decision was “understandable” given “the information available” at the time.

Dan and Adrian Heili, the hero Army medic who saved his life against the odds that day, meanwhile maintain there are still vital questions not answered by either the committee’s 2009 report, their earlier report in 2006 or indeed, the latter 2011 Coroner’s Inquest, which identified a number of failures and missed opportunities by MI5 – but ultimately ruled they would not have prevented 7/7.

Former construction manager Dan says: “The inquest was more about ascertaining time of death, place of death, perpetrator, that type of thing. A public inquiry looks at what was known. It looks at ‘was there any point where there could have been an intervention to stop it’?”

“The guy that did this is dead. I don’t get a trial. I don’t get my day in court. But why can’t we have the same disclosure around what led up to 7/7 as other atrocities got?”

Dan has a long list of questions, including: how long Khan was on MI5’s radar, why a telephone recording discussing an attack was not acted upon and why Khan was not made a high priority, despite alleged photos of him at a suspected extremist training camp. It was also reported that the US National Security Agency had looked into disturbing emails from Khan the year before the attacks. These are just a few of many.

“A public inquiry won’t give me my legs back,” says Dan, now an accessibility consultant in Abergavenny. “It won’t give me my eye back. But I’d have a sense of justice that somebody has been held accountable.

“Some 52 people lost their lives, why doesn’t that warrant one[an inquiry]? Jean Charles de Menezes was tragically shot a couple of weeks after 7/7, he got a public inquiry. Why is his one life worth more than 52? If they really think it’s not possible, then please just explain to me why – and I’ll get back in my box.”

Dan has recently spent days reviewing all the previous Government reports line by line while writing his first book Back From the Dead, which was released in June.

The 2006 Intelligence and Security Committee Report had originally been sent to Dan while he was still in hospital. It came with a covering letter from the then-Committee chairman The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP. It referred to the attacks of “July 7, 2006.”

“Talk about adding insult to literal injury,” says Dan, who married the love of his life Gem, 42, in 2015. “How can you put much credence in the report if they can’t even get the date of the attack right?”

A public inquiry could also be a financial lifeline to those, like Dan, with life-changing injuries. Dan received just shy of £116,000 from the Government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

It’s a fund which gives a standardised payout, calculated by which body part is injured, to all victims of violent crime, with no regard as to whether it was a street mugging or a terror attack. Dan says he was also instructed he could only claim for three injuries.

“The money’s gone,” he says. “It barely lasted five years.”

If an inquiry found anyone was to blame, it could open up an avenue for victims to receive extra compensation.

Meanwhile Dan admits the thought of Blair earning north of £100,000 for speaking engagements about his time as prime minister – including the War in Iraq – is particularly painful. “I think he’s disgraceful,” says Dan.

In one final plea to the dignitaries who’ll be attending on Monday, Dan adds: “I’m not a stupid man. I knew that getting blown up, life was going to be tough. But I didn’t think it would be unjust.”

The Home Office has no current plans to hold a public inquiry.

Complete timeline of how the 7/7 bombings unfolded

*Around 8:49 a.m Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19, detonated homemade devices on Circle Line trains between Edgware Road and Paddington and Liverpool Street and Aldgate, and a Piccadilly Line train between King’s Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. They killed six, seven and 26.

*At 9.47am Hasib Hussain, 18, detonated a device, believed to have earlier failed, on the top deck of the Number 30 bus outside the British Medical Association HQ in Tavistock Square.

*All but Lindsay were British-born, from Beeston, Leeds. Jamaican-born Lindsay, an Islam convert, lived with his then-pregnant wife in Aylesbury, Bucks. She was later revealed to be the ‘White Widow’, Samantha Lewthwaite, an alleged member of Somalia ’s radical Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab.

*Video confessions later saw the bombers citing the War in Afghanistan and Iraq as one of their motivations. The Met Police’s Operation Trident collected more than 2,500 pieces of evidence. There was further tragedy at Stockwell Tube on 21/7 when Brazilian student Jean Charles De Menezes, 27, was mistaken for a suspect in a feared follow up attack and shot dead by police

*A 2006 Initial Intelligence and Security Committee Report finds no evidence MI5 could have prevented the attacks.

During a separate trial regarding a foiled fertiliser bomb plot, it was revealed Khan and Tanweer had been tracked by MI5 for a time during 2004, but it was decided they were not a priority.

The then Home Secretary John Reid refused a public inquiry into what had been known, saying it would be a “massive diversion of resources” from the security services’ operations. Some 25 7/7 Families start legal proceedings to force a public inquiry.

*Reid authorises the subsequent 2009 IASC report which also concluded 7/7 could not have been prevented.

* David Cameron becomes Prime Minister and grants the seven-month Coroner’s Inquest, overseen by Lady Justice Hallett, with a more limited scope of inquiry. In 2011, after seven months of evidence, she made nine recommendations to the Home Office, Security Services and Emergency Services. She also concluded MI5 could not have prevented it and rules against a public inquiry as it would add further distress to the families.

*The 25 Families drop their legal suit for an inquiry immediately after the inquest report. They make it clear they still have unanswered questions but fear their emotionally-draining legal action is futile.

* Various news organisations report on allegations that Khan visited a Pakistan Al-Qaeda training camp as well as military training camps in Dubai and that The US’s NSA had intercepted alarming emails from him the year before the attacks.

*Dan maintains several key questions around how long Khan was on their radar, why a telephone recording discussing an attack was not acted upon and why Khan was not made a high priority, despite alleged photos at a training camp.

Back From The Dead: The Untold Story of the 7/7 Bombings by Dan Biddle with Douglas Thompson, by Mirror Books hardback, £20, is out Thursday. Buy here