Rescuers in Indonesia were searching in rough seas on Thursday for 29 people who went missing after a ferry sank on its way to the resort island of Bali, leaving at least five people dead.
The ferry departed shortly before 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday from a port on Java, Indonesia’s main island, carrying 53 passengers and 12 crew members. The journey to Bali typically takes less than an hour, but the crew sent a distress call at 11:20 p.m. and the ferry sank 15 minutes later, officials said.
The bodies of five Indonesians had been recovered as of Thursday morning, according to the search and rescue agency in Surabaya, a large city in East Java. Officials did not immediately say what had caused the ferry to sink.
As of early Thursday afternoon, 31 people had been rescued from the water as nine boats, a helicopter and local fishermen searched in waves taller than six feet, the authorities said. Families were gathering at the port in Banyuwangi on East Java for updates on the missing passengers.
Ferry accidents are common in Indonesia, an archipelago that comprises more than 17,000 islands.
The ship that sank on Wednesday, the KMT Tunu Pratama Jaya, was the second passenger ferry to sink off Bali in the past month. The other capsized in early June as it left a port on the island. All 89 people aboard were rescued.
Last year, more than six million international tourists visited Bali.
Muktita Suhartono reports on Thailand and Indonesia. She is based in Bangkok.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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