Indonesia rescues 11 who swam for hours to survive boat capsize
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JAKARTA - Indonesian rescuers on July 15 found 11 people who had been missing at sea after surviving a boat capsize in bad weather by swimming for at least six hours to the nearest island, officials said.
Two boats and dozens of rescuers hunted for those missing after the boat with 18 on board overturned off the Mentawai Islands in the province of West Sumatra at about 11am on July 14, regional officials said.
“It was raining hard when the incident happened,” island official Rinto Wardana told Reuters. “Some of the passengers managed to swim and reach the nearest island.”
Seven had been rescued earlier, he added.
Of the 18 people on board, 10 were local government officials. The boat had departed Sikakap, a small town in the Mentawai Islands, and was heading to another small town, Tuapejat.
Two boats and dozens of rescuers were deployed to find the missing people on July 15.
The Mentawai Islands consist of four main islands and many smaller ones.
Boats and ferries are a regular mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, and accidents are relatively common due to bad weather as well as lax safety standards that often allow vessels to be overloaded.
A ferry sank earlier in July near the island of Bali. Of the 65 people on board, 18 died, 30 survived and 17 remain missing. REUTERS
