At least nine killed in Indonesia boat accident

JAKARTA: At least nine people have been killed and one is still missing after a fishing boat
capsized in eastern Indonesia, an official said Saturday.

The wooden boat was carrying around 30 people when it overturned Friday afternoon after
departing from Takalar Lama river to Tanah Keke island in the province of South Sulawesi.

Twenty-one people have been found alive but rescue teams are still searching for missing
passengers.

"Its a traditional boat and it didnt report to the relevant authorities before it departed, so theres
also no passenger manifest and we dont know exactly how many people were on board," said
local disaster agency spokesman Hamsidar, who goes by one name.

The cause of the accident is still not known, but officials suspect bad weather might have played
a role.

The fishing boat departed from an unofficial location, said a transport ministry spokesman, thus
it did not have a legal permit to make the trip.

The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on boat transport
but safety standards are poor and accidents occur regularly.

In January a passenger boat ferrying around 200 people from the capital Jakarta to nearby Tidung
island left more than 20 people dead after it caught fire.

In November, at least 54 people died when an overcrowded speedboat carrying three crew and 98
passengers struck a reef and sunk on its way from Malaysia to Batam in Indonesia.