At least four people died and dozens were missing Thursday after a ferry bound for Bali sank in rough seas, Indonesian rescue officials said, adding that 31 survivors had been pulled from the water.
Rescuers were racing to find 30 people still missing at sea after the vessel carrying 65 passengers and crew sank before midnight Wednesday as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia's main island Java.
"The ferry tilted and immediately sank," survivor Eka Toniansyah told reporters at a Bali hospital.
"Most of the passengers were from Indonesia. I was with my father. My father is dead."
Indonesia's national search and rescue agency chief Mohammad Syafii told a news conference Thursday that 31 survivors had been found.
"Four people died, so 30 people are still being searched for," he said, adding the national agency sent a helicopter to help the effort.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement Thursday, adding the cause of the accident was "bad weather."
Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit, who had earlier put the total number of missing at 38, said efforts to reach the doomed vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions.
Waves as high as 2.5 meters (8 feet) with "strong winds and strong currents" had affected the rescue operation, he said, adding conditions have since improved.
A rescue team of at least 54 personnel including from the navy and police were dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, he said, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city to assist the search efforts.
Nanang said rescuers would follow currents and expand the search area if there were still unaccounted for people by the end of the day.
"For today's search, we are still focusing on search above the water where initial victims were found," the Surabaya search and rescue chief said.
The ferry's manifest showed 53 passengers and 12 crew members, he said, but rescuers were still assessing if there were more people onboard than the manifest showed.
It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
