At least 15 dead after ferry sinks off Indonesia's Sulawesi island

JAKARTA - At least 15 passengers were killed when a small ferry capsized during a short 20-minute journey near Indonesia's Sulawesi island, the national search and rescue agency said on Monday (July 24).

The other 33 passengers on board were rescued after the accident on Sunday night, the agency said in a statement, adding two of the victims were in hospital.

Photos shared by the rescue agency showed bodies covered in cloth on the floor of the hospital.

The cause of the sinking, which occurred at about midnight, was still unclear.

The vessel was ferrying people across a distance of just one kilometre in Muna island, about 200 km south of Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi province. The journey, between two small towns on either side of Mawasangka Bay, was meant to be just 20 minutes long.

Teams searching for the missing were diving at the location where the vessel sank and patrolling nearby waters in rubber boats, the agency said.

Ferries are a common mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, and accidents are common as lax safety standards often allow vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment.

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