Four dead after ferry sinks near Bali

Shafaq News – Jakarta

At least four people died and 38 remain unaccounted for after a ferry sank on its way to the Indonesian resort island of Bali, local police revealed on Thursday.

The vessel, which was carrying 65 people — 53 passengers and 12 crew members — went down late Wednesday at around 23:20 local time (1520 GMT). By Thursday morning, rescue teams had recovered four bodies and brought 23 survivors to safety.

Rama Samtama Putra, police chief in the East Java city of Banyuwangi, confirmed that search operations were still underway, with emergency crews working urgently to locate the missing.

Moreover, President Prabowo Subianto activated an emergency response plan, instructing authorities to deploy inflatable rescue boats to the site, followed by a larger vessel dispatched from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to support ongoing operations.

Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.