At least four people were dead and dozens unaccounted for on July 3 after a ferry sank on its way to the resort island of Bali, Indonesia, according to the local authorities, who said 23 survivors had been plucked from the water so far.
Rescuers were still racing to find 38 missing people after the vessel carrying 65 passengers sank before midnight on July 2 as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia’s main island, Java.
“23 rescued, four dead,” Mr Rama Samtama Putra, police chief of Banyuwangi in East Java, where the boat departed.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement on July 3, adding the cause of the accident was “bad weather”.
Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit confirmed the same figures in a statement, and said efforts to reach the boat were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions that have since cleared up.
Waves as high as 2.5m with “strong winds and strong currents” had affected the rescue operation, he said.
The agency had earlier said 61 people were missing and four rescued, without giving a cause for the boat’s sinking.
