Indonesian ferry fire kills five, several missing

Indonesian rescuers searched for possible missing passengers on Monday after rescuing 231 people from a ferry that caught fire the previous day off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was travelling from Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi.

Initial reports said it was carrying 271 people, including 39 crew members, based on the ship’s manifest, when the fire broke out between 6 am and 7 am. However, by Monday, officials said many more people were aboard than listed, and the number of people missing was unclear. Officials were relying on reports from families of victims and survivors in an attempt to determine the number of the missing.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest. Such discrepancies can complicate search and rescue efforts, said Nanang Sigit, the search mission coordinator who also heads the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office.