At least 11 people died, and nine others were missing when a speedboat carrying 78 people capsized off Indonesia’s western province of Riau on April 27, according to local authorities.
The speedboat, Evelyn Calista 01, left a seaport in the Indragiri Hilir Regency of Riau province on Thursday for a 124-mile trip to Tanjung Pinang city. Local officials said the boat sank just three hours after departure.
Nyoman Sidhakarya, chief of Pekanbaru Search and Rescue Agency, told The Associated Press that the speedboat was carrying 72 passengers and six crew members when it capsized in the rough seas.
Sidhakarya said that 58 people had been rescued, and 11 bodies were recovered on Thursday. Most of the survivors were unconscious when they were rescued, having spent hours adrift in the water, he added.
The search for the remaining nine individuals continues. Local police chief Norhayat said that authorities used tugboats and inflatable vessels for the rescue missions, but high waves have hampered the operation.
Boat tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.
In 2018, an overcrowded ferry with about 200 people on board sank in a deep volcanic crater lake in North Sumatra province, killing 167 people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
