Dozens Rescued, Over 100 Missing, As Waves Sink Indonesian Boat

Search and rescue teams have still not found the stricken vessel, police told AFP, which was ferrying 118 people around Sulawesi island when it sent out a distress signal late Saturday afternoon.

The fiberglass ferry was on its way from Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi province crossing the Gulf of Bone to Siwa town in South Sulawesi province, when it was overwhelmed by waves more than 3 meters (10 feet) high during stormy weather Saturday, said Roki Asikin, head of the search and rescue agency in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi.

Survivors said the ferry, carrying 110 passengers and 12 crew, had sunk but this has not been officially confirmed.

Rescue patrols from the police and navy have encountered waves around 16 ft. high. Officials dismissed initial reports the boat had sunk, instead claiming it was adrift, having lost engine power.

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. Three people died. There were no firm figures on the number of missing.

Spokesman of South and West Sulawesi Police, Senior Commissioner Frans Barung Mangera, said that the victims are found in Kolaka and North Kolaka waters.

He said waves of up to three metres in height and strong winds had hampered efforts to find survivors during the day.

Another report that it went down, on Kompas.com, said 122 people were on board.

Television footage showed dozens of family members anxiously waiting for their loved ones at the Siwa port.

Indonesia’s waterways serve as a widespread form of transportation in some areas of the country, where accidents resulting from overcrowded boats and lax safety standards are common.