11 dead, others missing after boat capsizes: Indonesia
The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
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A rescuer scans the horizon during the search for victims of a sinking speedboat in Indragiri Hilir Regency, Indonesia. (AP)
An official reported on Friday that eleven people drowned in western Indonesia after a passenger boat carrying dozens capsized.
After the accident off the coast of western Riau province on Thursday afternoon, 62 were saved by rescuers, and the bodies of mostly women and children were recovered, as per a statement by the local search and rescue agency official Kukuh Widodo.
"The capsized boat carried 74 people. Sixty-two survived the incident, 11 are dead, and one other is still being searched for," Pekanbaru national search and rescue agency spokesperson Widodo said Friday as quoted by AFP.
Shortly after departing from Tembilahan port, which is situated 198 kilometers away in a neighboring province, the speedboat heading for Tanjung Pinang city in the Riau islands capsized.
The cause of the accident was still being investigated, as per the official.
He cautioned that given the exact number of passengers aboard the Evelyn Calista 01 was yet unknown, the number of missing people could increase.
The real number of passengers on a boat in Indonesia frequently differs from the manifest.
Due to low safety regulations, marine accidents are reportedly frequent in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of about 17,000 islands.
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