“A wooden boat with 97 Indonesians has sank off Port Klang near Banting,” Mohamad Zuri, spokesman for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, told reporters, adding that 31 had been rescued.
The boat is believed to have sunk while trying to leave Malaysia illegally to take home the Indonesians ahead of the start of the Muslim fasting month, Ramadan.
The passengers included women and children and the boat was not fit for a sea voyage, Zuri told Reuters.
“This was an illegal boat and all the passengers were Indonesian,” Zuri said.
The agency had sent one boat to the area to search for survivors and was sending two more, the spokesman said. Malaysia’s New Straits Times said the boat sank around midnight on Tuesday about two miles (3 km) from the coastal town of Banting on the Strait of Malacca.
No reason was immediately given for the accident. Tens of thousands of Indonesians work illegally in plantations and other industries in Malaysia. They sometimes risk dangerous boat journeys to return home.