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Passenger boat disappears
11/07/2007 15:59 - (SA)
Jakarta - At least two people are dead and some 45 missing after a passenger ship disappeared in rough seas in eastern Indonesia, a local official said on Wednesday.
"There are still about 45 people missing. There were about 70 people on the boat," said Karim Tuanaya, an official with the port authority in Ambon, the city where the boat was due to dock.
"Twenty-three survivors were found and two people were found dead, both of them children," he told AFP.
"They are all now on board a Pertamina oil tanker... The tanker is still on location because the weather is still bad, with strong currents, rain and it's very dark," he said.
Tuanaya said the tanker had heard people screaming for help in the water and was staying in the area in the hope of finding more survivors.
Stormy seas in the archipelago nation's east killed one person and left 45 people stranded in three separate mishaps last month.
Boat travel is crucial between Indonesia's 17 500 islands but the weak enforcement of low safety standards often leads to fatal accidents.
- AFP
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