Five survivors found after boat sinks in Indonesia

Rescuers rescued five people, including a seven-year-old girl, from a passenger boat that sank in Indonesia’s eastern waters earlier in the week.

Twenty other people are still missing.

The KM Nurul Salsa ship, carrying 78 passengers and crew, sank after experiencing engine failure on Wednesday, approximately 43 nautical miles from the Selayar Islands port in South Sulawesi province.

Makassar Search and Rescue Bureau chief Muhammad Arif Anwar said in a statement that the five survivors were found clinging to a fish trap belonging to a local fisherman late Saturday. It is known that at least one person died in the accident.

The Makassar Search and Rescue Office had previously reported that the boat was carrying 74 people when it left Jampea Island, but this figure was later increased.

The five survivors, one man and four women, were found before dark and were evacuated by a fishing boat passing near Matallang Island and eventually taken to a search and rescue boat.

“They were taken to the port in Benteng town for health checks and information gathering,” Anwar said.

Passenger boats are a common form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. Problems caused by lax safety standards and overcrowding often cause accidents.