Two New Zealand Salvation Army officers involved in a murder trial in Pakistan have emailed relatives, saying they saw the dust from the suicide bomb blast in Lahore that killed 23 people this week.
Major Peter Scadden and his wife Jeanette, formerly of Dunedin but now living in Wellington, said the bomb went off 500 metres from the house where they were staying.
Mrs Scadden wrote: "We are OK but it shook the place.
Peter and I were up the road looking for something in the market.
We could see the dust in the air from it and could hear the buildings falling.
We got back to the van very fast and headed down the road home."
The couple are in Pakistan to give evidence in the murder trial of Salvation Army Major Mark Joseph who is accused of having murdered the head of the Salvation Army in Pakistan, Norwegian Colonel Bo Brekke, in 2007.
Pakistan's Daily Times reported there was evidence Joseph stole a set of keys to the army's Lahore headquarters from Major Peter (Scadden's) office.
It suggested the murder was over a property dispute or financial embezzlement.
The trial is expected to be completed next week and Mrs Scadden wrote that they hoped to be heading home in about 10 days.
