At least 30 people are missing from the blazing wreckage of a ferry off the coast of Java island, a port official said Friday.

The KM Santika Nusantara was traveling between the country's second-largest city of Surabaya and the town of Balikpapan on Borneo island with 277 people on board, when it caught fire on Thursday evening, government official Syahrul Nugroho told TV channel TV One.

"About 245 people have been evacuated using small boats, while 30 passengers are still missing," he said.

Officials have given no details on the cause of the fire. Rescue efforts were complicated by the boat's manifest listing only 111 passengers, officials said.

Ferry accidents are common in Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, with more than 17,000 islands. Many accidents are blamed on lax regulation of boat services.

The manifest for the ferry that caught fire Thursday showed that only 111 people were registered as passengers, along with 44 crewmen, Prasetyo said.