JAKARTA: A total of 211 people were rescued after an Indonesian passenger ferry caught fire near the tourist island of Bali on Wednesday, local authorities said Thursday.
One Indonesian woman was confirmed dead in the incident, according to an official report released early Thursday.
The ferry, Putri Yasmin, caught fire at around 4:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday while en route from Bali to the neighboring island of Lombok.
Multi-agency rescue operations, involving the National Search and Rescue Agency, the Indonesian Navy, maritime police, and passing civilian vessels, successfully evacuated the survivors to ports in both Bali and Lombok.
"The evacuation was completed safely and smoothly," said the official report from local authorities.
Discrepancies emerged between initial records and the actual number of people aboard. While the ship's manifest listed 131 people, including 17 crew members, officials later confirmed that additional unregistered passengers were on board at the time of the incident.
Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, assisted by the Lembar Port Authority, has launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze. Assessments of material losses, including the vessel, vehicles, and cargo, remain ongoing.
Ferry transport is vital across Indonesia, an archipelagic country of more than 17,000 islands, but lax safety enforcement and unpredictable weather are frequently blamed for deadly maritime accidents. - Xinhua
