 "11 Indonesians survive days in sea after boat capsizes, 22 missing")
Eleven Indonesian fisherman survived three days at sea clinging to their upturned boat, rescuers said Wednesday, as they hunted for at least 22 crew members remained missing following the weekend catastrophe, which killed two.
Before the 11 were discovered stranded on two different atolls after days of floating in the sea, the boat carrying at least 35 crew members sank on Saturday in waters off the isolated Selayar Islands in South Sulawesi Province.
The local search and rescue organisation reports that during Indonesia’s rainy season, their boat overturned due to inclement weather.
“They had been floating in the sea for three days, they were carried away by the current to Selayar waters,” local government official Andi Caco Amras told AFP Wednesday.
On two different islands, the two victims were discovered.
On March 3, the fishing boat sailed to Lombok Island in the West Nusa Tenggara Province from a port in North Jakarta.
The search was being assisted by the navy and volunteer rescue workers.
“The joint team will conduct a search and rescue operation and they have departed… this morning,” local search and rescue official Andi Raswan told AFP.
He said it would take rescuers five hours to reach the location.
The survivors were found after local fishermen spotted them and alerted authorities, state news agency Antara reported.
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More ShortsAmras told AFP survivors said they held out for three days at sea by wearing life jackets and tying themselves to the boat.
“They were carried away along with the boat to the Selayar islands. The boat was turned over, the bottom was at the top,” said the official.
The vessel of 93 gross tons was carrying “equipment to catch fish such as fish traps, nets, rocks, ropes, coconut leaves and fishing rods,” he said.
Amras said 35 people were on the boat with 22 missing while the rescue agency gave a higher toll of 37 and 24 missing.
It is common in Indonesia for the number of actual passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
Authorities received reports about the incident early Tuesday but said bad weather had hampered their efforts.
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, due to lax safety standards.
In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island.
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