A passenger boat sank off an Indonesian island, killing at least one person and leaving 24 others missing, the local search and rescue agency said.
An engine failure caused the boat to sink as it sailed near Selayar, a small island south of the larger Sulawesi, said the head of the local search and rescue agency, Muhammad Arif Anwar yesterday.
The crew was unable to repair the engine, prompting the skipper to call local authorities requesting evacuation, he said.
The boat was already partially sunken when rescuers reached it yesterday, according to Arif.
Forty-nine people were rescued, one woman was found dead, and “24 people are still being searched for”, said Arif.
The vessel’s manifest listed 50 people on board, but further verification revealed there were in fact 74, he added.
It is common in Indonesia for the number of actual passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
An Indonesian Navy vessel had been deployed to assist with the search, which is expected to continue into the night, Arif said.
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the South-East Asian archipelago, due in part to lax safety standards and inclement weather. — AFP
