Police to track Kiwis still missing after Bali bombings

12.30pm

Police throughout the country will be trying to track down the 27 New Zealanders still unaccounted for after the Bali bombings.

As of today 1322 New Zealanders who were thought to be in the area had been accounted for following last weekend's car bombing of the Sari nightclub that killed more than 180 people, including two New Zealanders.

A third New Zealander is missing presumed dead.

National crime manager Detective Superintendent Rob Pope said today police had taken responsibility for the job as they were in a better position than Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) staff to track down the missing.

"We've had close liaison with MFAT since it started and have been monitoring the numbers of New Zealanders who are unaccounted for. It's now got to the point where the police have in fact taken over the tracking aspect."

Mr Pope said the police network here and overseas would be used to try to find the missing people.

The job would be co-ordinated from national police headquarters and inquiries directed to different districts to follow up.

"We'll just follow through as best we can with our inquiries which are clearly much more extensive than what MFAT are able to undertake."

Mr Pope said it was too soon to say if any more New Zealanders were killed in the bombings.

"We certainly hope not and as the identification procedures gather more momentum we'll have a much clearer understanding of that in the next week or so."

Meanwhile, two New Zealand police officers leave for Bali at 1pm today.

The officers will be a "support group" within the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation and Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit.

"They're there to certainly look after New Zealand interests in terms of the deceased people and in terms of investigation support that the AFP requires," Mr Pope said.

The officers were Senior Sergeant Gerry Prins of the Australasian DVI unit and Detective Sergeant Dave Potaka. There are already two officers there.

MFAT warnings to New Zealanders travelling to Indonesia remained in place today.

The ministry advised against tourist and non-essential travel to all of Indonesia and against all travel to Bali until further notice.

MFAT has asked its overseas posts to make condolence books available to people who wanted to register sympathies for the victims and families of the attacks.

Condolence books held at Parliament for Australian and Indonesian victims have been signed by about 50 people each.

- NZPA

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