JAKARTA, July 16, (v7n) – A passenger boat sank off an Indonesian island on Thursday, killing at least one person and leaving 24 others missing, according to the local search and rescue agency.
The boat was sailing near Selayar, a small island south of Sulawesi, when an engine failure caused it to sink, said Muhammad Arif Anwar, head of the local search and rescue agency. The crew was unable to repair the engine, prompting the skipper to contact local authorities for evacuation, he told AFP.
Rescuers arrived on Thursday to find the boat already partially submerged, Arif said. Forty-nine people were rescued, one woman was found dead, and "24 people are still being searched for," he added.
The vessel's manifest listed 50 people on board, but further verification revealed the actual number was 74. It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
A navy vessel has been deployed to assist with the search, which is expected to continue into the night, Arif said. Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago, due in part to lax safety standards and inclement weather.
In January, three Spanish tourists died when their boat sank off eastern Indonesia, and a 10-year-old boy was officially listed as missing after authorities ended the search.
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