Rescuers have located five survivors, including a 7-year-old girl, from a passenger boat that sank earlier in the week in eastern Indonesia waters, as they continue searching for 20 others still missing.
PALU, Indonesia — Rescuers located five survivors, including a 7-year-old girl, from a passenger boat that sank earlier in the week in eastern Indonesian waters, as they continue searching for 20 others still missing.
The KM Nurul Salsa, which was carrying 78 passengers and crew, encountered engine failure and sank on Wednesday, approximately 43 nautical miles (79 kilometers) from the port in the Selayar Islands, South Sulawesi Province.
The five survivors, one man and four women, were discovered adrift late Saturday, clinging to a fish trap. They were rescued by a local fisherman’s vessel near Matallang Island and subsequently transferred to a search and rescue boat for evacuation to the port of Benteng town for medical examinations and information gathering.
Initial reports indicated the boat was carrying 74 people when it departed from Jampea Island, but the passenger count was later revised to 78. At least one person is confirmed to have perished in the incident.
Passenger boats are a common mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago with over 17,000 islands, often plagued by lax safety standards and overcrowding, leading to frequent accidents.
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