Search teams are looking for one missing person after rescuing hundreds from a passenger ferry that caught fire in Indonesia’s Molucca Sea, local officials said on Sunday.
The KM Karya Indah was travelling in a remote part of the Indonesian archipelago, from Ternate in the province of North Maluku towards Sanana on the island of Sulabes, when the fire broke out early on Saturday morning (29 May).
Dramatic footage from Indonesia’s search and rescue agency showed the vessel engulfed in smoke and part of the ship ablaze as passengers in life vests jumped from the deck into lifeboats.
‘There were 275 people on board, 274 had been evacuated safely,’ Muhammad Arafah, the head of the local search and rescue team, told Kompas TV on Sunday.
‘The search is still continuing. Today’s search and rescue plan (will be conducted) by a joint search and rescue team,’ Arafah added.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but initial reports suggest the fire may have started in the engine room, Indonesian officials said.
For more information, please visit: www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/1-missing-person-indonesia-ferry-fire-km-karya-indah-14914624
