At least five dead after Indonesian passenger ferry catches fire at sea
More than 280 people were rescued and evacuation efforts were ongoing following the incident on Sunday.
The KM Barcelona 5 was headed to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, from Talaud, an island district in the province, when it caught fire in waters near Talise, Vice Admiral Denih Hendrata, commander of the Indonesian Fleet Command, said.
The senior officer said that three navy ships had been deployed, and 284 passengers and crew members had so far been evacuated.
More than 280 people were rescued (BASARNAS via AP)
The rescue operation included assistance from local fishermen, who saved some survivors wearing life jackets as they were drifting to nearby islands in the choppy waters.
Rescuers retrieved five bodies, including a pregnant woman.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and no exact figures of passengers and crew members onboard the ferry.
'We are still focusing on evacuation efforts,' Vice Admiral Hendrata said, adding that the cause of the fire was being investigated.
Photos and videos released by the national search and rescue agency showed terrified passengers, mostly wearing life jackets, jumping into the sea. Orange flames and black smoke billowed from the burning vessel.
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.
Residents of Mentawai Islands found several people stranded on July 14 after a speedboat carrying 18 people capsized during a storm the day before, authorities said. All were in good condition.
Meanwhile, a ferry sank near Indonesia's resort island of Bali early this month, leaving at least 19 dead and 16 others missing. A two-week search operation involved more than 1,000 rescuers, three navy ships, 15 boats, a helicopter and divers.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Zookeepers in Prague turn into puppeteers to save baby vultures
Zookeepers in Prague have become puppeteers to save newborn birds rejected by their parents. The latest was a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick which hatched three weeks ago. Bird keeper Antonin Vaidl said that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signalled to keepers that the parents were not ready to care for their two babies, despite doing so in 2022 and 2023. A lesser yellow-headed vulture is fed using a puppet that imitates a parent bird (Petr David Josek/AP) The first-born is being kept in a box and fed using a puppet designed to mimic a parent bird, while another is expected to hatch in the next few days. Mr Vaidl said the puppet is needed to make sure the bird will be capable of breeding, which it will not if it gets used to human interaction. He explained that the puppet does not have to be a perfect replica of an adult bird because the chick responds to certain signals, such as the pale orange coloration on its featherless head and neck. Lesser yellow-headed vultures live in the wild in Latin America and Mexico. Prague Zoo is one of only three zoos in Europe that breed them. In the past, the park successfully applied this treatment to save the critically endangered Javan green magpie and two rhinoceros hornbill chicks. The puppet-feeding technique is applicable for birds that live in pairs. 'The method has been working well,' Mr Vaidl said. 'We'll see what happens with the vultures.'
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Bangladesh Air Force jet crashes into a Dhaka school and kills 18
A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka, shortly after take-off on Monday, killing at least 18 people including the pilot and injuring 164 others, the military said. According to the military and a fire official, the Chinese-made F-7 BGI aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College, in the Uttara neighbourhood, in the afternoon as students were attending classes. The military said the jet took off at 1.06pm local time and crashed soon after, catching fire immediately. Firemen check the wreckage of a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft (Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP) The cause was not immediately clear. It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. Local media indicated most of the injured were students. Relatives arrived at the scene as rescuers, using tricycle rickshaws or whatever was available, transported the injured to local hospitals. Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, told The Associated Press by phone that the school, with some 2,000 students, offers classes from elementary to twelfth grade. 'I was terrified watching videos on TV,' the 16-year-old said. 'My God. It's my school.'
RTÉ News
6 days ago
- RTÉ News
Three dead, hundreds rescued after Indonesia ferry fire
Three people have died and more than 500 others were rescued after a ferry caught fire off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, emergency officials have said. Passengers jumped overboard with lifejackets after the fire broke out yesterday at the stern of the KM Barcelona 5, as it sailed to Manado, according to the Indonesian coast guard. A video released by the Manado rescue agency showed a coast guard vessel spraying water on the ferry, which was emitting black smoke. Indonesian authorities previously reported five people died in the accident, but later revised the death toll to three. "Until now, the joint rescue team is still conducting the search and rescue operation because the data is still developing," Manado rescue agency head George Leo Mercy Randang said. "Our post is still open 24 hours a day, in case families want to report about their missing relative." At least 568 people were rescued from the ferry and water while three others were found dead, the national search and rescue agency said in a statement. The ferry's log had only registered 280 passengers and 15 crew on board. Local media reported that the ship had a capacity for 600 people. Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards or bad weather. The fire came just weeks after another ferry sank off the popular resort island of Bali due to bad weather, killing at least 19 people. In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person. And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra Island.
