Indonesia searches for 129 missing after ship capsizes

Hundreds of Indonesian rescuers including the coastguard and the navy raced on Monday (September 14) to board a passenger ship that capsized in the Java Sea over the weekend as they searched for the 129 people still missing, officials said, with the confirmed death toll at six, Reuters reports.

The Virgo Transport 8 ship carrying 243 people went missing in bad weather early on Sunday (September 13), the rescue agency said. Authorities have since rescued 108 people from the ship, which was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

At a local medical facility, survivors received treatment for their injuries. Survivor Rinto Arahab said the vessel began listing heavily before overturning within minutes, forcing him to grab a life jacket and cling to the ship before climbing onto the upturned hull, where he waited to be rescued by two tugboats.

In separate incidents last month, two ferries carrying hundreds of passengers caught fire in the water. Five people died when a ferry caught fire off Madura island, while one person died in a fire on a ferry travelling from the tourist island of Bali.