Four people died, 38 were missing and 23 survived after a ferry carrying 65 people sank near the Indonesian island of Bali, news channel MetroTV reported, citing Indonesia's Search and Rescue agency.
The boat KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java's Ketapang port late on Wednesday, the authorities said in a statement. It was bound for Bali’s Gilimanuk port, a 50-kilometer (30-mile) trip.
The ferry carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks, it said.
Many of the rescued were unconscious after drifting in choppy waters for hours, said Banyuwangi police chief Rama Samtama Putra.
Some survivors saved themselves by using the ferry's lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the local agency said.
Nine boats, including two tug boats and two inflatable boats have been searching for the missing people since Wednesday night, battling waves up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) high in the overnight darkness.
Rescuers said they were still assessing if there were more people onboard than the ferry's manifest showed. It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
The ferry from Java to Bali takes around one hour and is often used by people crossing between the islands by car. It was unclear if any foreigners were onboard when the ferry sank.
Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.
In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.
A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.
And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra island.
(AP, Reuters and AFP)
(Updated 9.43am)
