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Four dead as ferry carrying 65 sinks near Indonesia's Bali; 31 rescued
The ferry carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.
A ferry carrying 65 people sank near Indonesia’s resort island of Bali overnight, with the rescuers on Thursday searching for 30 people missing in rough seas.
The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java’s Ketapang port late on Wednesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement. The boat was headed for Bali’s Gilimanuk port, a 50-kilometre trip.
According to the rescue agency quoted in an Associated Press report, the ferry carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.
Banyuwangi police chief Rama Samtama Putra told the news agency that the rescuers have so far found four bodies.
Thirty-one people have been rescued till now, according to the rescue teams involved in the effort. Many of the rescued were found in an unconscious state after drifting in choppy waters for hours.
Nine boats, including two tug boats and two inflatable boats, have been searching for the missing people since Wednesday night. In the overnight darkness, they battled waves up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) high.
Ferry tragedies in Indonesia
Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.
Seven domestic tourists were killed and 34 others injured after a wooden vessel sank in the country's Bengkulu province back in May. Another incident happened last month when a tourist boat carrying 89 passengers capsized off the coast of Bali. All the passengers in that tragedy were rescued, but luck does not always favour like that.
