Five people have died and 41 remain missing after an Indonesian ferry carrying 271 people caught fire in waters off Sumenep, East Java, on Sunday morning.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 was sailing from Surabaya to Makassar when the captain reported the blaze between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time, approximately 19 nautical miles north of Burung Island. The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency deployed the KN SAR 249 Permadi to assist with evacuations, with an estimated six-hour transit to the scene. The tugboat TB Hasnur 26 began pulling passengers from the vessel around 9:59 a.m., and by 10:20 a.m. some passengers had jumped into the sea and were rescued by the tug and the British Mentor.
Minst fem personer har omkommit as search operations continue.