Jakarta: Six people have died and 130 remain missing after a ferry capsized in the Java Sea off Indonesia, Indonesian authorities said on Sunday, as search and rescue teams continued efforts to locate those unaccounted for.
The Indonesian search and rescue agency said in a statement that its teams had evacuated 113 people from the ferry, including 107 who were found safe. Six others were confirmed dead, while search operations remain underway for 130 missing people.
Contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 early Sunday amid bad weather. The ferry, which was carrying 243 people, including 30 crew members, subsequently capsized.
The vessel had departed on Saturday from Surabaya in East Java, bound for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, before sinking in the Java Sea.
I Putu Sudayana, head of the Banjarmasin search and rescue agency office, said survivors were evacuated by several vessels, with some due to be transported to a port in East Java.
He said a large-scale search operation had been launched, with a specialist team, several vessels and a helicopter deployed to the ferry's last known location in an effort to find those still missing.
Indonesia, an archipelago of around 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries for inter-island travel, given their accessibility and lower cost compared with air travel. But inconsistent enforcement of safety standards has contributed to frequent ferry accidents.
