Four people were killed, 30 were missing, and 31 were rescued when a ferry carrying 65 people capsized in Bali, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency, as rescuers scrambled to find casualties in the turbulent sea.
The ferry sank nearly half an hour after departing East Java province’s Banyuwangi port for Bali late on Wednesday, according to reports.
The boat was carrying 53 passengers, 12 crew members, and 22 cars.
The search for the missing is ongoing, but it is impeded by high currents and gusts, according to officials.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement Thursday, adding the cause of the accident was “bad weather”.
Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit, who had earlier put the total number of missing at 38, said efforts to reach the doomed vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions.
Waves as high as 2.5 metres (8 feet) with “strong winds and strong currents” had affected the rescue operation, he said, adding conditions have since improved.
A rescue team of at least 54 personnel including from the navy and police were dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, he said, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city to assist the search efforts.
Ferries are a popular means of transportation in Indonesia, and accidents are prevalent due to loose safety standards that frequently allow vessels to be overcrowded without proper life-saving equipment.
In 2023, a tiny ferry capsized near Sulawesi, killing at least fifteen persons. In March, a boat carrying 16 people sank in choppy conditions near Bali, killing one Australian woman and wounding at least one more.
In 2022, a ferry carrying over 800 people got aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province and stayed trapped for two days before being freed, with no one injured.
