Hundreds of people beleaved to have dead in ferry disaster

Hundreds of people beleaved to have dead in ferry disaster

Agence France Presse/Jakarta

Hopes faded on Monday of finding any more survivors from a ferry
that sank off the eastern Indonesian province of Papua last week,
with as many as 200 people believed trapped inside, a rescue
official said.

Some of the passengers were children on school holiday when
the state-operated ferry, the Digul, was engulfed by waves on
Thursday. Fifteen people, including two crew members, were
rescued alive.

"Seeing that we have only been able to find 15 people after
three days, we believe that most of the passengers had been
trapped inside the boat," said Sumpeno Juwono, a search and
rescue official from Merakuke district.

The vessel's manifest showed 35 passengers and a crew of 13
when the ship left the port of Merauke some 3,740 kilometers
(2,380 miles) east of Jakarta, but survivors said the number on
board was between 100 and 200.

The rescue effort will now focus on trying to overturn the
wreck, which was found belly up around 15 metres (50 feet)
underwater some 15 nautical miles off the coast, Juwono told AFP.

"What we will attempt is to use two trawler ships to try to
drag the boat or overturn it so that we can evacuate bodies
trapped inside," he said.

The vessel had been transporting two bulldozers and hundreds
of sacks of cement as well as the passengers. The manifest showed
that some of the passengers were school children.

Indonesia is one of the world's largest archipelagos and
relies heavily on marine and river transportation, especially in
the less developed islands in eastern Indonesia.

Ferry accidents are common because of weak safety enforcement
measures and frequent overcrowding on vessels due to the lack of
other transport to some remote regions.