JAKARTA - At least 11 people have died and one is missing after a ferry capsized off the eastern coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the country’s national search and rescue agency Basarnas said on Friday.

Rescuers saved 62 people and found the bodies of mostly women and children after the accident off the coast of western Riau province, which took place on Thursday afternoon, said Basarnas spokesman Kukuh Widodo.

Mr Widodo said: “The capsized boat carried 74 people. Sixty-two survived the incident, 11 are dead, and one other is still being searched for.”

He added that the speedboat bound for Tanjung Pinang city in Bintan capsized shortly after leaving Tembilahan port, located 198km away in a neighbouring province.

The cause of the accident is still being investigated, the official said, with an earlier report saying that the vessel had hit a log about 30 minutes into its voyage.

He warned that the number of missing could grow as the precise number of people aboard the Evelyn Calista 01 was not confirmed.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of actual passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.

Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a South-east Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, due to lax safety standards.

In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island. AFP, REUTERS