The vessel was carrying more than 271 people from Surabaya in East Java, to Makassar Jakarta’s port of Muara Angke to Tidung, a resort island in the Kepulauan Seribu chain, when it caught fire, officials said.
An official from the Disaster Mitigation Agency, said the fire gutted around half the vessel. He said many people injured victims were rushed to hospitals, and only five bodies had been recovered.
Five bodies that were found inside the vessel were burned beyond recognition and were transferred to a police hospital for identification, said police’s health department.
A search involving around 41 people to find those who were missing, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
Witnesses told MetroTV that the fire broke out about 15 minutes after the ferry left Surabaya in East Java. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Some passengers told local media they first saw smoke coming from the ferry’s engine.
TV footage showed people in the water with the ferry in flames in the background. A woman in the water could be heard screaming “Ya Allah! Ya Allah!” or “Oh God! Oh God!”
Another woman told the TV station that she and other passengers were rescued by a small boat.
Officials said more than 271 people were aboard the ferry, but the manifest showed that only 100 were registered as passengers, along with six crewmen, said , head of the disaster mitigation agency. He said the vessel’s captain was under police investigation over the incident.