39 rescued, scores missing as waves sink Indonesian boat

The motor boat had been carrying 116 passengers people, according to its manifest, when it was hit by large waves Saturday afternoon and its crew reported to port authorities that the vessel had begun taking in water.

Officials dismissed initial reports that the boat had sunk, instead claiming it was adrift, having lost engine power.

The vessel, which was sailing from Kolaka in southeast Sulawesi to Siwa in south Sulawesi, went off the radar in a storm and has not been found yet.

A fisherman who rescued four of the survivors, Amiruddin, recalled spotting a woman and a boy with floats bobbing on the sea while he was fishing Sunday morning.

More than a dozen of those reportedly on board were children.

“Based on the Basarnas [National Search and Rescue Agency] coordination following the wind ward, the searching will be focused in North Kolaka and closer to Port Tobaku”, said spokesman of South and West Sulawesi Police, Police Senior Commisioner Frans Barung Mangera, on Monday.

Rescuers have pulled out 39 survivors and three dead from a passenger boat that sank in central Indonesia after being buffeted by high waves, and were battling bad weather Sunday to reach scores of others still missing.

Television footage shows family members in waiting anxiously at the Siwa port for their loved ones.

Rescue leader Roki Asikin said the waves meant it took another three hours to evacuate some survivors to shore.

In recent years hundreds of people have been killed due to boat accidents in Indonesia.

Indonesia relies heavily on passenger boats to connect 17,000 islands but the transport sector has a poor safety record.