A SURVIVOR of the Bali terrorist outrage flew back into the North-East last night to tell of his horror at witnessing the death of his best friend.

Still bloodied from the atrocity which has so far claimed more than 180 lives, Ian Stafford arrived at Newcastle Airport with a harrowing account of the moments in which the holiday paradise became a killing ground.

Among the dead is Mr Stafford's friend, County Durham car mechanic Ian Findley.

And Mr Stafford, a garage owner from Annfield Plain, revealed that his friend had saved his life by shielding him from the full force of the explosion.

"We stepped out of the taxi into one of the clubs and the whole bar blew up in front of our faces," he said.

"We all jumped back. There was glass everywhere and everyone was covered in blood.

"We were at the front doors and just then the second bomb went off. I was behind Ian and he took the full force of the blast. He shielded me from the worst and without doubt saved my life."

Mr Stafford woke in hospital with 110 stitches and shrapnel removed from his leg, chest, throat and shoulder.

And the 42-year-old later saw his own name appear on the list of fatalities on Indonesian television. He said: "On the morning afterwards I was watching the TV and names began flashing up on the screen. I asked someone at the hospital what the names meant and they told me it was the people who had died - I was number 31."

The mix-up happened because Mr Findley, from Craghead, County Durham, had picked up a bill with Mr Stafford's name on it and put it in his wallet.

Mr Stafford then had the grim task of identifying his 55-year-old friend at the morgue, although DNA tests will be needed to provide formal confirmation. He is one of as many as 33 Britons feared dead.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said "we are as certain as we can be" that 18 Britons are dead and that 15 Britons who are still missing are also believed to have died.

Prime Minster Tony Blair said the horror attack showed "the appalling depths to which these extremists will sink" but that all steps necessary would be taken to deal with them.

The destruction, which also injured 300 people, started when a small home-made bomb exploded outside Paddy's Discotheque in the maze of clubs and bars on Kuta Beach, a popular haunt with young travellers.

Soon afterwards, a huge blast from a bomb in a Toyota Kijang, a jeep-like vehicle, 30 yards down the street devastated the packed Sari Club.

The Foreign Office confirmed that 30-year-old Marc Gajardo, from Cornwall, had perished in the blast.

Paul Hussey, 46, who was born in Swindon but had been on the island since March managing two hotels in Kuta, was named as another British victim.

The families of a group Britons touring with the Hong Kong Football Union feared the worst after they were confirmed missing.

The seven expatriate Britons last seen in the nightclub devastated by the explosion were named as Tom Holmes, 39, Nathaniel Miller, 31, Peter Record, 32, Stephen Speirs, 36, Edward Waller, 26, Clive Walton, 33, and Anika Linden, 29.

One of the rugby players thought to have been killed in the blast was the son of two Sunderland city councillors.

Clive Walton is the son of Conservative councillors Jack and Lilian Walton, who yesterday flew out to the Far East in the wake of the tragedy.

For the first time, a senior government official in Indonesia implicated al-Qaida in Saturday's attack.

"We are sure al-Qaida is here," Matori Abdul Djalil said after a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta. "The Bali bomb blast is linked to al-Qaida with the cooperation of local terrorists."

In a separate development, a statement attributed to Osama bin Laden also appeared yesterday on an Islamic website praising attacks on US marines in Kuwait and on a French tanker off Yemen.

Despite Foreign Office advice about avoiding travel to Bali, many British tourists already on the island chose to carry on with their holidays.

But more than 140 tourists with Thomson Holidays were being flown back to the UK.