INDONESIA – Indonesia’s Bali ferry sinking on Wednesday have left at least 4 people dead and dozens missing when a ferry sank on its way to Indonesia’s Bali island.
Twenty-three people have been rescued after the vessel, carrying 65 people, sank before midnight on Wednesday in the Bali Strait, the search and rescue agency in Surabaya said.
The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya was traveling from East Java’s Ketapang port in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java to Gilimanuk seaport in Jembrana Regency on Bali island when it sank.
Authorities launched search and rescue operations but they are hampered by strong winds, large waves and powerful currents.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, Cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement Thursday.
He said the cause of the accident was “bad weather.”