Indonesia discovers 74 bodies after ferry sank

Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of 74 people who were on a ferry that sank off a remote eastern province earlier this month, but 100 more bodies could be trapped in the wreckage, an official said on Tuesday.

Most of the bodies were discovered washed up on shores near the coastal city of Merauke, about 2,300 miles east of the capital Jakarta. The vessel went down in rough seas off far eastern Papua province on July 7.

“We only managed to pull one body out of the ship wreckage,” Sumpeno Yowono, head of the Merauke rescue agency, told Reuters by telephone.

“Based on the information from eyewitnesses and port officials, we think there were still around 100 bodies inside the ship,” he said.

Yowono added that rescuers and navy divers planned to tear apart the vessel to retrieve the trapped bodies. But bad weather and strong waves had hampered efforts.

Fifteen people including two crew members were rescued after the ferry sank about 20 nautical miles off Merauke, near Indonesia’s border with Papua New Guinea.

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Ferries are the most common means of transport for people wishing to travel around the 17,000 islands of the world’s largest archipelagic nation, where sea connections are much cheaper and more available than air routes.

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But safety standards are not strictly enforced and many ferries are overcrowded. A number sink each year, especially in the eastern and less developed parts of the country.

Reports of sinkings can sometimes take days to reach Jakarta from remote areas.