Five people are dead and dozens missing after a ferry capsized overnight in rough seas off Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Thirty-five of the 65 people on the boat were rescued while the remaining 25 people are missing. Many of them were found unconscious after drifting in choppy waters for hours, the local police chief said.
The ferry carrying 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks, capsized shortly before midnight on Wednesday. It was going from Banyuwangi on the eastern coast of Java to Bali, the National Search and Rescue Agency said.
“KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya,” the agency said, referring to the ferry, “sank about 25 minutes after weighing anchor.”
The cause of the accident is not yet known but bad weather or engine trouble is suspected.
"The condition of this ship is fully submerged, so there is a possibility that there are people inside the ferry. But right now we are focusing on the surface of the water first," Surabaya search and rescue head Nanang Sigit said.
"For today's search we are focusing on searching on the water, as the initial victims were found in the water between the location of the accident toward Gilimanuk port," Mr Sigit said in a statement Thursday morning.
Relatives of the passengers arrived at the departure port after getting news of the disaster. Many appeared in panic and cried for their loved ones as they sought help from local authorities.
Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto, who was in Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response for the people impacted, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said.
The cabinet secretary said the boat likely capsized due to “bad weather”. However, a ferry operator said the vessel had reported issues with the engine shortly before it sank, local media reported.
Nine boats have been deployed to search for the missing passengers and crew.
The transport ministry has said that all passengers were Indonesian and no foreigner was involved in the accident.
Strong waves as high as 2m and darkness hampered the search and rescue operation overnight, but improved sea and weather conditions in the morning made it easier to find more missing people.
The sinking of the ferry was witnessed by the port’s on-duty officer before rescue teams were called.
"The ferry could not be contacted via radio from the beginning. Then it could be contacted by other ships from the same company. But the ship was already in a tilting condition," Mr Sigit said.
"Today, we are focusing on searching on the water as the initial victims were found in waters between the location of the accident towards Gilimanuk port.”
Four of the survivors saved themselves by using the ferry’s lifeboat. They were found in the water early on Thursday, the search agency said.
Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of over 17,000 islands where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations are lax.
The ferry from Java to Bali takes about an hour.
In March this year, an Australian woman died and another person was injured after a boat carrying 16 people capsized off the Bali coast.
In 2018, more than 150 people were killed after a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on the island of Sumatra.
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