Three businessmen today revealed how they escaped death when the Bali bombs exploded just metres from them.

Business partners Neil Cullen, Philip Jarman and Hugh Sugden were being driven towards Kuta Square, in the heart of the South East Asian island's tourist area, when the blast struck only 200 metres away.

The friends, all from the Silsden and Steeton area, were left shocked and horrified.

Mr Cullen, 47, president of Silsden Park Rangers rugby league club, told how they witnessed bodies piled three deep being driven away from the carnage.

Mr Cullen, Mr Jarman, 43, of Silsden, and 38-year-old Mr Sugden, of Steeton, who is on the committee of Silsden Cricket Club, were on a five-day business trip. They were on the way back to their hotel when the bombs went off.

Mr Cullen told the Telegraph & Argus: "We were heading for the square, which was on our route back to the hotel, and were stuck in traffic on the street that runs parallel with it when the bomb went off 200 metres away.

"There was a massive bang that had the effect of an earthquake. The ground trembled and everything seemed to shake around us.

"There was pandemonium after it happened. People were panicking and running away. It was terrifying."

Mr Cullen and his friends were escorted by police towards the beach and their driver then took them on a diverted route back to their hotel.

But as they left the area Mr Cullen said they were passed by at least four ambulances crammed with casualties.

He said: "A pick-up truck hurtled past us with an ambulance sign on the front. There were between 12 and 14 people piled three or four deep on it. People were trying to tend to them as it went.

"It was quite clear that many of them were dead or near death. It was an horrendous sight to see.

"We would have been going through the square a few minutes later. If we hadn't been stuck in traffic we might have been there when the bombs went off. We feel lucky and relieved."

Mr Cullen said mobile-phone systems crashed after the blast and the friends were unable to contact their families and partners for between 12 and 14 hours.

"We got through on Sunday morning to our loved ones who had seen it on the television and were frantic with worry," he said.

"We are not panicking but we just want to get home now as soon as we can. We are waiting to hear that we can catch our scheduled flight home tonight."

The friends had travelled to Bali on numerous occasions because of their land and property business interests but had not been since the terrorist attack three years ago.

Mr Cullen said: "We gave it time to settle down. We thought it was safe to go back. Tourism had revived and that gave us the confidence to go.

"It's going to be difficult for us to come back now. I don't think we will be going ahead with our business plans here. We are looking at pulling out."

Mr Cullen criticised the Foreign Office for not giving British people stronger warnings about terrorism.

"They had said it was fine to travel, but the Australian government have been putting out warnings of high alerts for a couple of months," he said.

"If we had had those warnings we would have considered far more carefully than we did whether we should have come here."

The Foreign Office has issued new travel guidelines to Indonesia on its website.

A statement advises: "If you are in Indonesia, you should exercise extreme caution at all times because there remains a high threat from terrorism."

Indonesian police were continuing to examine footage today which shows a suspected suicide bomber preparing to blow up the restaurant.

In the dramatic film, a man dressed in jeans and a T-shirt casually walks into a packed restaurant with something on his back.

Diners enjoying a candlelit meal then let out screams as a loud bang is heard and smoke fills the screen.

At least 26 people died and more than 100 were injured when three suicide bombers targeted restaurants in Jimbayan Beach and Kuta, to the south of the island, on Saturday.

It also emerged that one of the suspected masterminds behind the bombings studied at Reading University in the late 1980s.

Malaysian Azahari Bin Husin - known as "Demolition Man" - was named by Indonesian officials alongside Noordin Mohamed Top.

Both men are thought to have been behind the 2002 attacks on Bali which left 202 people dead, including 26 Britons.