Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes and his family are desperately trying to leave Bangkok after they narrowly missed walking directly into the bomb blast at the Erawan Shrine in the Thai capital.
The Cold Chisel frontman and his wife Jane, daughter Elly-May, son-in-law Liam Conboy and grandson Dylan were making their way from the Erawan Hotel, where they were staying, to the Intercontinental Hotel when the bomb exploded.
The family were going to meet friends at the Chinese restaurant in the Intercontinental for dinner, when a last minute decision by Barnes to bypass the uneven roads and walk in an enclosed walkway between the hotel and a shopping centre saved his family's life.
"We were going across the road to another hotel for a restaurant. We had two ways of doing it. I had the pram with the grandson with me and walking out the front and turning right and walking past the shrine would have been very difficult because it's a bumpy road and trying to get across and all that kind of stuff," Barnes told AAP from his Bangkok hotel.
"So I said to the kids `follow me, I'll take you this other way' so I took them this quiet roundabout way which ended up going up escalators and down elevators and across a walkway which goes above the road," Barnes said.
At that point, Barnes said they almost walked "into the bomb" because they couldn't find the linking passageway to the Intercontinental Hotel.
"But I said I think it's the next floor so I took them all in the elevator again to come down.
"And we were literally walking between two buildings on the walkway when the bomb went off. And it was just frightening."
Some people thought there had been a car crash, but Barnes said "I knew it was a bomb straight away".
"All the windows sort of went whoosh and bent from the blast and we quickly got across the walkway and we were inside the other section of this building.
"I could just look back and I could see the other walkways and people running away from where the blast was," he said.
The family made it to the Intercontinental Hotel where they met friends in the lobby before retreating to a private room at the back of the restaurant.
"I walked up to the front of the hotel and looked down the street and I could see flames everywhere," Barnes said.
However, his grandson needed a new nappy so the singer volunteered to go to a 7/11 shop, which was near the bomb site.
"I was a bit nervous but I didn't want my grandson screaming and I wanted to help."
Barnes is now trying to organise flights for his family back to Australia as soon as possible. They were originally due to return on Wednesday.
"I was coming back to put out this record so it all sort of pales into insignificance really. I just want to get my family home in one piece," Barnes said.
The singer said he's been to the shrine himself numerous times and anyone who has been there would have been making a wish or giving thanks.
"My wife's Thai, my family's Thai so this is like home to us. It's a really very sad thing. I feel really sad for Thai people and for anybody was involved," he said.
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