Eight people were killed and more than 20 others are feared to have drowned after their speed boat sank in heavy seas off eastern Indonesia last week, officials said today.
“One Chinese national was found alive. We’ve also pulled out eight bodies from the water… they were all bloated,” provincial search and rescue team head Amin Bin Tongke told AFP, adding that the search for survivors continued.
Maluku province police spokesman John Huwae earlier said 35 people including 25 Chinese nationals were on the 12-metre long vessel, which was travelling from Aru to Tual islands when it sank on Thursday due to bad weather.
The boat’s skipper had ignored warnings from the meteorological office about bad weather, Huwae said.
Indonesia’s 234 million people are spread across 17,000 islands and are heavily dependent on a network of ships and boats, which have a poor safety record.