One person has died and 102 others have been rescued from an Indonesian passenger ferry that sank in the Java Sea, an official said.
The search and rescue operation was launched after the Virgo Transport 8, which was carrying 243 people, lost contact due to bad weather, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said.
The search for the remaining passengers continues.
The ferry was traveling from Surabaya to the town of Banjarmasin in southern Kalimantan and was last reported to be about 150 km (93 miles) south of Banjarmasin at around 02:00 local time on Sunday (18:00 GMT on Saturday).
Authorities received an initial distress report at 04:10 from the vessel’s operator, PT Virgo. The ship left Surabaya at 10:33 a.m. on Saturday and was expected to arrive in Banjarmasin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, according to data from two maritime monitoring stations.
A joint task force was formed for the rescue operation, including Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, navy, NCIS and other parties.
Ships and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene and all other vessels in the area of the Java Sea were alerted to signs of passengers.
On Sunday morning, an operational post was created near the port of Trisakti to eliminate the consequences of the accident.