2 months ago
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Jakarta: Rescuers are searching for 43 people who went missing in rough seas overnight after a ferry carrying 65 people sank near Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java’s Ketapang port late on Wednesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement. It was bound for Bali’s Gilimanuk port, 50 kilometres away.
Mount Raung, in East Java, as seen from Gilimanuk Port in Bali.Credit: Reuters
The ferry was carrying 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks, the agency said.
Two bodies have been recovered and 20 people were rescued, many of them unconscious after drifting in choppy waters for hours, Banyuwangi police chief Rama Samtama Putra said.
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Nine boats, including two tug boats and two inflatable boats, have been searching for the missing people overnight, battling waves up to two metres high.
Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.
In March, a tourist boat capsized in heavy seas, killing Australian woman Anna Blight.
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