Summary 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
JAKARTA (Reuters) - 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.
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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.
