Indonesia continues search for hundreds missing in capsized ship

JAKARTA, Sept 20 — Indonesian authorities will continue searching on Monday for ​more than a hundred people still missing after a passenger ship sank in the Java Sea last ‌week, with the confirmed death toll now at 10, its rescue agency ⁠said on Sunday.

The passenger ​ship, Virgo Transport 8, ⁠was carrying 243 people, including 30 crew members, when ‌it capsized in ‌bad weather early on September 13 during a ⁠20-hour voyage from Surabaya ⁠in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

"Hopefully the weather at the site will be favorable (tomorrow)...so more victims trapped inside the ship can be evacuated," said I Putu Sudayana, an official at the national ‌rescue agency in a press conference.

Sunday's ​operation was hampered by strong currents, he said.

On Monday, the agency will send a remotely operated vehicle into the vessel to help guide the divers during the operation, Putu added.

The divers recovered on Sunday one more body from inside the ship's hull, ​after finding three victims on Friday. Following the latest ‌operation, 125 passengers ‌remained ⁠unaccounted for and 108 people had survived.

The rescue agency has extended for a week the recovery operation due to the large number of missing people and because the ‌salvage operation to ​right the ship is expected ‌to take time, authorities ⁠said ​on Saturday.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; editing by Lincoln Feast and ​Toby Chopra)

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