JAKARTA, Indonesia — An overloaded passenger boat capsized off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi early Monday, killing no less than 15 individuals and leaving 19 others lacking, rescuers mentioned.
The small wood boat capsized simply after midnight, mentioned Muhammad Arafah, an area official with a search and rescue company. He mentioned it had been bringing individuals from one village to a different in Buton Central, a regency, or administrative district, in southeastern Sulawesi.
Rescuers had been looking Monday for 19 individuals nonetheless lacking in tough seas, Mr. Arafah mentioned. He mentioned six individuals had been rescued and 15 our bodies recovered.
Hundreds of individuals in Buton Central had gone to their villages for an area celebration on Sunday, a lot of them touring by fishing or passenger boats.
Tv information confirmed footage of individuals on fishing boats retrieving our bodies within the in a single day darkness, and grieving kin ready for info at a port and at an area hospital.
Ferries are a typical type of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago with greater than 17,000 islands. With security requirements typically lax and overcrowding widespread, accidents happen ceaselessly.
In 2018, an overcrowded ferry with about 200 individuals on board sank in a lake in North Sumatra Province, killing 167 individuals.
In certainly one of Indonesia’s worst recorded disasters, an overcrowded passenger ship sank in February 1999 with 332 individuals aboard. Solely 20 individuals survived.
