Indonesia ferry fire: eight dead, 262 rescued
Jakarta: Eight people were found dead and 262 survivors rescued from
a blazing ferry among some 350
passengers on board, according to Indonesian Navy
spokesman on Thursday.
Navy spokesman said that five Naval war ships, two planes and two helicopters have been deployed to search the rest of the passengers.
Eight people were killed, 211 passengers and 15 crew members have been found live, he told Xinhua.
The cause of the accident was still unknown.
The spokesman said the ship caught fire at 5.20 a.m. Jakarta time after it had sailed about 80 km from Tanjung Periuk port in Jakarta and was heading to Bangka island off Sumatra island.
In late December, another ferry carrying around 600 passengers capsized off Java island and more than half of the passengers are believed to have died.
The current incident took place only two months after another ferry sank off Central Java, leaving some 300 people dead or missing. Ferry is a popular mode of transport for connecting about 17,000 islands in Indonesia.