At least four people are dead and dozens of others are missing after a ferry carrying 65 people sank off Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, authorities have said.
Rescuers are searching for 38 people after the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank shortly after leaving East Java’s Banyuwangi port, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, Badan Nasional Pencarian dan Pertolongan, said on Thursday.
Twenty-three survivors have been rescued as part of the rescue operations, which include nine vessels, according to officials.
Banyuwangi police chief, Rama Samtama Putra, said many of the survivors were initially unconscious after spending hours drifting in the ocean.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement, adding that the cause of the accident was “bad weather”.
Maritime disasters are a common occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands, where lax safety standards often allow vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment. (Al Jazeera)
