Rescuers searching for 140 people from Indonesia passenger ship, official says

Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters —  Indonesian rescuers were searching on Sunday for 140 people ​from a passenger ship that was earlier reported ⁠missing in the Java Sea after 103 others were evacuated, ​one of whom died, a search and rescue agency official said.

The ​Virgo Transport 8 ship set sail on Saturday from ​the East Java city of Surabaya to the South Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin ‌before ⁠losing contact, the agency said.

I Putu Sudayana, the head of the agency’s Banjarmasin office, said in a video statement that 103 people had been evacuated 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 toward the passenger vessel’s last known position, he said, without stating what happened to the ship.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a key mode of 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.