Hundreds still missing after Indonesia ferry sinking

INDONESIA: More than 100 survivors have been recovered after a ferry capsized off Indonesia's Java island, but hundreds were still missing on Sunday as rescue efforts resumed.

Survivors told harrowing stories of the ship's frightening last moments and their struggles to put on lifejackets and get into lifeboats.

The Senopati Nusantara, which sank around midnight on Friday, was carrying 628 people including 57 crew according to the manifest, Riyadi, Search and Rescue (SAR) operational chief in Semarang, Central Java, told Reuters by telephone.

"Up till this morning we have found 107 people, two of them dead," he said, adding that Sunday's rescue efforts began at dawn.

"We have mobilised our SAR team, 12 speed boats from Rembang and in a moment a Nomad will be working, then a Cassa, and two helicopters from the navy and army." Nomads and Cassas are planes. Rembang is the Central Java coastal city where many survivors were taken for medical care.

One survivor there told Reuters the ship had started to roll over after struggling in high seas and heavy rains.

"Suddenly the lights went off and it became dark. The ship's crew tossed lifejackets ... some could not get any but I got one," said Waluyo, 53. "I tried to get into a rubber boat but many people also did the same thing, so the rubber boat was torn ... Finally I grabbed the edge of another rubber boat."

Waluyo said he did not know the fate of his two children, one a young adult and the other an infant, who had been travelling with him.

About 40 survivors were treated for minor injuries at a Rembang hospital before shifting to a temporary shelter to wait for relatives or find their own way home.

The sinking of the Senopati Nusantara was the second Indonesian ferry disaster in as many days after a vessel overturned on Thursday night in rough seas off Sumatra. Heavy seas and bad weather hampered initial rescue attempts in both cases.

Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa has said the Senopati Nusantara was on fire before it sank. "The huge waves and storm caused the ship to burn," he told the BBC Indonesian service.

Rembang, Sunday, Reuters