At the time of the incident, there were 189 passengers on board the KM Lestari Maju ship. 34 people died while 155 survived the incident, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Head of Public Relations of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), confirmed in a tweet.
Search and rescue operations were launched in the afternoon hours of July 3, led by BNPB and other agencies. Despite high waves and rain, all of the victims have been evacuated, local media cited Selayar police chief as saying.
The sinking has been reportedly caused by a leak in the ship’s hull.
KM Lestari Maju also carried vehicles and IDR 30 billion ( around USD 2 million) in cash intended for civil servants of Selayar Islands. As informed, the money is still on the vessel, guarded by security officers, and is expected to be recovered.
This is the second ferry incident in the country in the past few weeks. Another ship sank in Indonesian Lake Toba, one of the world’s deepest volcanic lakes, on June 18, with nearly 200 people presumed to have drowned.
星期二在印度尼西亞南蘇拉威西省附近海域渡輪翻覆後，有30多人死亡。
事件發生時，KM Lestari Maju船上有189名乘客。印度尼西亞國家減災局（BNPB）公共關係負責人Sutopo Purwo Nugroho在一條推文中證實，有34人死亡，155人倖存。
搜救行動於7月3日下午在BNPB和其他機構的帶領下啟動。據當地媒體援引塞拉亞爾警察局長的話說，儘管海浪和雨水很大，但所有受害者都已撤離。
據報導，沉船是由船身進水造成的。
KM Lestari Maju還為Selayar Islands的公務員提供了300億印尼盾（約200萬美元）的現金。據了解，這筆錢仍在船上，由保安人員守衛，預計將被收回。
這是過去幾週內該國第二次渡輪事件。另一艘船於6月18日在印度尼西亞多巴湖（Lake Toba）沉沒，這是世界上最深的火山湖之一，有近200人被認為淹死了。
Information source: World Maritime News Staff; Image Courtesy: Shangbaoindonisia
