A ferry in Indonesia catches fire, killing one and saving 172

On Wednesday, 172 people were rescued by Indonesian police after a ferry from the popular island of Bali caught fire in waters off the coast of Lombok. The hunt for any further missing passengers is still ongoing.

According to Muhammad Hariyadi, the head of the local rescue organization, the KM Putri Yasmin ferry departed Padangbai port in Bali for Lembar port in Lombok in the province of West Nusa Tenggara. According to Hariyadi, the event happened in the Lombok Strait on Wednesday (2039 GMT Tuesday) at 4:39 a.m.

According to Hariyadi, 172 people had been evacuated to ports in Bali and Lombok by Wednesday afternoon, and one Indonesian had been confirmed deceased. One of the survivors was Australian, and the others were Indonesian.

“We have deployed some boats to carry out the evacuation and coordinate with other boats surrounding the location of the incident,” Hariyadi said, adding that more than 200 personnel had been deployed to handle the operation.It was unclear how the ferry caught fire, or whether overcrowding was a factor. 

Heri Wiyanto, an official at Bali’s Padangbai port, said local broadcaster Kompas TV earlier in the day that the ferry’s manifest only included 114 passengers and 17 crew members. The event happened less than a month after five passengers were killed when KM Mutiara Sentosa 2, another ferry, caught fire off Madura island. Additionally, the ship was transporting more passengers than its manifest indicated.

Ferries are a major form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, because marine routes are more accessible and less expensive than air travel. However, there is a comparatively high risk of accidents since safety regulations are not always strictly followed.