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At the least 4 people have died and dozens are still missing after a ferry sank near Bali.
Rescuers are scouring the waters off the Indonesian island for 30 passengers after the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya went under late on Wednesday.
Eka Toniansyah was among the many 31 survivors and told reporters on the hospital: ‘The ferry tilted and immediately sank.
‘Many of the passengers were from Indonesia. I used to be with my father. My father is dead.’
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a visit to Saudi Arabia, ordered an instantaneous emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in an announcement Thursday, adding the reason behind the accident was ‘bad weather’.
The country’s search and rescue agency has deployed a helicopter to the placement and 13 underwater rescuers but said their efforts are being hampered by strong currents and winds.
Video provided by the national rescue agency Basarnas showed what gave the impression to be the body of 1 person being carried to shore from a fishing boat in calm seas.
There was no official statement on the nationalities of the passengers, but a manifest list broadcast by news channel MetroTV indicated there have been no foreigners on board.
Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit said rescuers would follow currents and expand the search area if there have been still unaccounted for people by the top of the day.
‘For today’s search, we’re still specializing in search above the water where initial victims were found,’ he added.
The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java’s Banyuwangi regency to Bali’s Gilimanuk port – certainly one of the busiest in Indonesia – is around three miles because the crow flies and takes around one hour.
It is usually utilized by people crossing between the islands by automobile.
Ferries are a standard mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago of greater than 17,000 islands, and accidents are common as lax safety standards often allow vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment.
A small ferry capsized in 2023 near Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at the very least 15 people.
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