JAKARTA, July 20– Rescuers have found seven survivors from a passenger vessel that sank several days ago off Indonesia’s Selayar Islands, including a 7-year-old girl, German Press Agency (dpa) reported, citing local media on Sunday.
The wooden passenger vessel sank on Wednesday in waters west of Polassi Island. Eighteen people remain missing, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency. The boat was carrying 78 people.
On Saturday, five survivors were rescued by a fishing boat, local news outlet BukamataNews reported. They had stayed alive by clinging to a floating structure used to attract fish.
On Sunday, a search team found two other survivors, a man and his mother, in waters near Sanipa Island.
BukamataNews reported that search teams also recovered life buoys bearing the vessel’s name, KM Nurul Salsa, and other flotation devices that had washed ashore on an uninhabited island.
Maritime accidents are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries and small passenger boats are a vital means of transport.
Overcrowding, ageing vessels and weak enforcement of safety regulations have contributed to repeated fatal accidents over the years.
