An Indonesian ferry with at least 600 aboard sank during a stormy night-time voyage as it travelled between Borneo and Java islands, officials said today.
The sinking is the second ferry disaster in as many days in Indonesia after a vessel capsized on Thursday in rough seas off Sumatra island.
High seas and bad weather were hampering efforts to rescue survivors in the latest disaster, officials said today, but 69 had been found as of late afternoon, Riyadi, the Search and Rescue operations chief in Semarang in Central Java, said.
Most of the survivors were in hospital in Rembang. Nine people were still on Bawean island, he told Reuters.
Rembang is a town in Central Java province. Bawean, in the Java Sea 663 kilometres (412 miles) east of Jakarta, is where many survivors were taken initially.
"I am from Purworejo. I hope rescuers can find my daughter," survivor Cholid told Elshinta radio from a hospital in Rembang, where he said he had been taken by the fishermen who found him.
Crew members ordered passengers to put on lifejackets before the ship sank, he said.
The ship had reported leaking before it sank at around midnight.
Toni Syaiful, a Navy spokesman in the East Java city of Surabaya south of where the ship went down, said it had left Kalimantan on Borneo on Friday evening for Semarang.
Six navy ships, a helicopter and an airplane had been mobilised to comb the area where it sank, he said, but the weather was making rescue efforts difficult.
"There are big waves now, about two to three metres (7-10 feet) and it is also raining."
Syaiful said the ship carried 542 passengers based on tickets sold and 63 crew. Earlier figures from officials and media had ranged from 500 to 850 on board.
Indonesian vessels often carry passengers not listed on the official manifests.