Police boat, ship collide, 3 missing 22 injured
Police boat, ship collide, 3 missing 22 injured
Agencies, Jakarta/Singapore
Three policemen were missing and 22 injured after a police patrol boat Sadewa collided with a Liberian-registered ship the Vialto and sank, a police spokesperson said on Monday.
The collision occurred on Sunday as the Vialto was heading for Jakarta's main port and the police boat was patrolling the Thousand Islands area, a string of islands popular with local and foreign tourists 12 kilometers north of the capital, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf said.
Police impounded the cargo ship, which was ten times larger than the Sadewa, and were still questioning its captain, identified as Suresh Umar Kanwar.
"We are still investigating this matter," Saleh said.
Saleh's deputy, Sr. Comr. Prasetyo, added that the collision had been ruled an accident for now.
Separately, a spokesman for Singapore's port authority told AP on Monday that search-and-rescue operation for an Indonesian sailor missing for three days in the seas around Singapore ended Monday without finding him.
The sailor, whose name is not being released, was one of 12 crew members who abandoned a Hong Kong-bound tanker filled with gasoline as it was swept by flames before sinking last Friday. His fate is still unknown.
The search-and-rescue effort was abandoned early Monday morning, although port authority and police vessels will continue to survey the waters surrounding Singapore, said Simon Ang, a spokesman for the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
The Panama-flagged Onis Pratiwi was carrying 1,200 metric tons of gasoline when it caught fire about 2 kilometers off of Singapore's west coast on Friday.
The crew abandoned ship and 11 of the 12 were hauled from the sea shortly afterward. The ship subsequently sank.
As of Monday, it was not known if the missing sailor was able to leave the sinking ship, if he drowned with it or if he met some other fate.
Salvage operations are underway but the boat isn't expected to be raised for about another week, Ang said.
This Southeast Asian island nation is located along a major route for oil tankers and other ships and is one of the world's busiest seaports.