Rescuers search for 130 people after Indonesia passenger ship flipped; six dead, government says

JAKARTA, Sept 13 — Indonesian rescuers were searching on Sunday for 130 ​people from a passenger ship that sank in the Java Sea after 113 others were evacuated, ‌the country's search and rescue agency said, adding that six people had ⁠died.

An Indonesian passenger ship ​carrying 243 people, including ⁠30 crew members, was reported missing after losing contact ‌with authorities early ‌on Sunday during bad weather, the search and ⁠rescue agency said.

The Virgo ⁠Transport 8 ship set sail on Saturday from the East Java city of Surabaya to the South Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin, it said.

Later on Sunday, the agency said six people died after rescuers found ‌107 people safe, while 130 others ​remained missing, having said earlier that the ship had sunk.

I Putu Sudayana, the head of the agency's Banjarmasin office, said in a video statement that evacuees had been transported using different ships and some of them would be taken to an East Java ​port.

Rescuers launched a search, deploying a team, ships and ‌a helicopter to ‌the ⁠passenger vessel's last known position, he said.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries for transportation, with sea routes more affordable and readily available than air ‌travel.

However, safety standards ​are not always rigorously enforced, ‌resulting in a relatively ⁠high ​accident rate.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Jamie Freed and ​Thomas Derpinghaus)

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