Rescuers are searching for 32 people after the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank shortly after leaving East Java’s Banyuwangi port, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, said on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.
Twenty-nine survivors have been rescued as part of the rescue operations, which include nine vessels, according to officials.
Sea and weather conditions were reportedly improving during the morning, aiding the search for survivors.
Banyuwangi police chief, Rama Samtama Putra, said many of the survivors were initially unconscious after spending hours drifting in the ocean.
Panicked family members rushed to the departure port, some crying, as they sought information about their loved ones and hoped they were among the survivors.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement, adding that the cause of the accident was “bad weather”.
Maritime disasters are a common occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands, where lax safety standards often allow vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment.
In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.
In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra Island.