The China Mail - 5 dead, 29 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali

Rescuers were racing to find 29 people still missing at sea after the vessel carrying 65 passengers and crew sank before midnight on Wednesday, as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia's main island Java.

"The ferry tilted and immediately sank," survivor Eka Toniansyah told reporters at a Bali hospital.

"Most of the passengers were from Indonesia. I was with my father. My father is dead."

Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit told AFP that a fifth victim was found dead on Thursday afternoon.

"Thirty-one victims were found safe, five died, 29 people are still being searched for," Nanang said.

President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said, adding the cause of the accident was "bad weather".

Nanang said earlier Thursday efforts to reach the doomed vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions.

Waves as high as 2.5 metres (8 feet) with "strong winds and strong currents" had affected the rescue operation, he said, adding conditions have since improved.

A rescue team of at least 54 personnel was dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, he said, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city.

Indonesia's national search and rescue agency chief Mohammad Syafii told a news conference that the agency sent a helicopter to help the effort.

- Frequent accidents -

Nanang said rescuers would follow currents and expand the search area if there were still people unaccounted for by the end of the day.

"For today's search, we are still focusing on search above the water where initial victims were found," the Surabaya search and rescue chief said.

The ferry's manifest showed 53 passengers and 12 crew members, he said, but rescuers were still assessing if there were more people onboard.

It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.

It was unclear if any foreigners were on board.

The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java to Bali's Gilimanuk port is one of the busiest in the country and takes around one hour.

It is often used by people crossing between the islands by car.

Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry's lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the Surabaya rescue agency said.

It said the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.

Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather.

In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.

A ferry carrying more than 800 people in 2022 ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province, where it remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.

And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra island.

H.Ng--ThChM