I survived Bali terror attack which killed my new husband & 9 pals – the moment bomb hit was like being in the movies | The Sun
HEADING to the dance floor with her pals while her husband-of-five-weeks ordered drinks at the bar of a Bali club, Polly Brooks was on cloud nine.
Seconds later, her dream honeymoon turned into a nightmare when an explosion ripped through the Sari Club.
It killed her husband Dan Miller and nine friends, including her bridesmaid Annika Linden.
Surrey-born Polly was the only one of her group to survive when three bombs were detonated by an Islamic terror group on October 12th, 2002.
The blasts killed 202 people from 33 different nations, including 28 Brits and 88 Australians, and injured hundreds more.
Polly, then 29, was left with burns to 43 per cent of her body and endured 11 life-saving operations and weeks in hospital – all while dealing with the daily horror of yet another person close to her being identified as a fatality.
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Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attack, Polly tells documentary Bali Bombings: The Real Death in Paradise, how the crushing grief left her wishing she had died in the blast.
“When I found out, little by little, that everybody had died, I felt angry that I’d been left behind,” she says.
“It felt really unfair that I was left to deal with it and to try and get better and to cope.
"I didn’t want to be alive.”
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Love at first sight
City trader Polly, from Guildford, was living and working in Hong Kong when she went on her first girls' holiday to Bali.
She met Kent lawyer Dan, who was also working in Hong Kong, at a rugby match on the paradise island and says they instantly clicked.
“When I met Dan I knew straight away that I’d be marrying him,” she says. “There was insane chemistry. He was everything I was looking for – clever, sporty, fun, a sparkle in the eye. He had that sense of adventure I had too.”
That evening they met up at a club in the party district of Kuta, where Dan “made a beeline” for Polly, then 27, and they shared a kiss.
The couple became inseparable as they continued dating on their return to Hong Kong, and a year later they returned to Bali where Dan proposed.
A traditional church wedding was planned for September 2002 back in the UK. Polly chose Annika, her best friend since the age of eight, as bridesmaid alongside her nieces and nephews.
“We were as happy as could be,” says Polly.
Engulfed in fireball
After the big day the couple headed on honeymoon to the Maldives and Sri Lanka before returning to Bali, where they met pals from Dan’s rugby team, the Hong Kong Vandals, and Annika.
On October 12, they headed out to dinner and onto the Kuta party strip, arriving at the Sari Club just before 11.
Minutes later, a suicide bomber let off a bomb in Paddy’s Bar opposite the club.
Seconds passed before a truck full of explosives was also detonated in the street outside, sending a blast through the doors that engulfed partygoers in flames.
“This yellow light came towards me and it’s like being in the movies,” Polly recalls. “You’re literally lifted off your feet and thrown up into the air.”
All I could see was flames and I could hear people screaming. I genuinely thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die'
As she hit the floor the roof collapsed on top of Polly and she was trapped in the burning building.
“All I could see was flames and I could hear people screaming. I genuinely thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die’,” she says.
“I had a beam crushing my right leg. All of this happened in split seconds but it felt like slow motion.”
Blinded by the raging fire, Polly felt a gap above her, and with what she calls “superhuman strength” she pulled herself up onto the roof.
“I remember looking ahead and there was just a wall of flames,” she says. “I was so scared. I was on fire, so I just screamed and ran across the roof.”
As she reached an area outside, a stranger wrapped her in a blanket to put out the flames and held her up to stop her collapsing.
I was so scared. I was on fire, so I just screamed and ran across the roof
But help was slow coming. The blast had caused a road blockage, trapping around 70 injured victims in a cul-de-sac.
“It was like being trapped in living hell,” Polly says. “It was excruciatingly painful. There were burning buildings all around us. It was terrifying.”
She had no idea where Dan and Annika were, and hoped they too had escaped alive. When someone handed her a mobile phone she managed to call her mum, but there was no word from her husband.
“I told Mum, ‘I’m fine, a little bit burnt.’ I knew I was in extreme pain but I had no idea how close I was to dying,” she says.
Severe burns and thigh 'like beef joint'
After a hellish three hours, rescuers broke through and managed to take Polly to a hospital where, overwhelmed with casualties, staff dumped her on a trolley and gave her minimum care.
“My skin was hanging off me, my clothes were burned onto me,” she says.
“They had fluids which kept me alive but they’d run out of morphine so I had intravenous paracetamol and they just pulled my skin off, wrapped me up and put fluids in.
“It was a terrifying situation because I was in a lot of pain and I didn’t know where Dan or Annika or any of the others had gone.”
Polly caught the deadly infection MRSA in the hospital. Thankfully the following day Australian authorities stepped in and airlifted the injured, including Polly, to Darwin.
After cleaning her wounds they flew her to a burns unit in Brisbane where she was met by her mum and dad, who had been flown out by her company.
“It was a terrible shock,” recalls mum Rosemary. “Her head was completely swollen. We had no idea the extent of her burns.
"What she looked like is seared into my brain. Her thigh was like a joint of beef.”
Devastated to survive
Polly was in surgery for 12 hours, with surgeons using undamaged skin from most of her body to patch up the burned areas.
“I was literally head to toe in pain,” she says. “I had thousands of staples in my body. To have my wounds cleaned every day was agony.”
As she recovered, every day brought fresh, heartbreaking news of her friends’ deaths.
“It was really difficult because I was in bed and one by one they were confirmed and Dan was one of the last,” she says.
“I was really unhappy I’d survived to be honest.”
Polly missed the funerals of her friends, including Annika, and was only able to write messages from her hospital bed.
It was nine weeks before she could fly back to the UK, arriving on December 18th – three days before the funeral of husband Dan and what Rosemary called “the saddest Christmas ever”.
“Mum was incredible at showing me the way forward,” says Polly.
“She said ‘don’t be angry, don’t be bitter because the only person that will damage is you. You’ve got to look forward.’”
No regrets
The attack was traced to the extreme Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah and several perpetrators were arrested.
Ringleader Hambali – who received funds from 9/11 terrorists Al-Qaeda – had ordered a strategy of hitting soft targets, such as nightclubs and bars, rather than high-security sites like embassies.
Ali Imron, who was convicted for his part in the bombings, said they were a response to the American invasion of Afghanistan, following the 2001 Twin Tower attacks. Bali was chosen "because it was frequented by Americans and their associates".
Three of the bombers – Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Huda bin Abdul Haq – were executed by firing squad after being sentenced to death by the Indonesian government. Imron was given a life sentence because he showed remorse.
Hambali spent 19 years in US centre Guantanamo Bay before being charged in 2021. He is awaiting trial.
Although Polly kept up with the trials she focused on rebuilding her life.
“Ultimately it didn’t change anything,” she says. “You couldn't bring them back. While it was important to me that they were captured and punished, I didn't want to focus my energies on that.”
In the aftermath, Polly set up the charity Dan’s Fund For Burns, raising money to support burns victims and buy specialist medical equipment.
To date they have raised over £80million and donated Meek Mesher machines, which expand donor skin before grafting, to seven hospitals.
They also provide support and advice to hundreds of burns victims and installed the first full time clinical psychologist in the main London burn service, prompting the NHS to roll out vital psychological care to patients nationwide.
Polly, awarded an MBE in 2020, has found happiness with second husband Andy Brooks, with whom she has two children.
“A lot of people ask me if I regret going to Bali or living in Asia and I say I can’t regret a single moment of it,” she says.
“We didn’t take a dangerous decision, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unlucky.
“Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Yes, absolutely.
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Bali Bombings: Real Death In Paradise Special'airs on Really, Sunday 2nd October, 10pm. Also available to stream on discovery+
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