10 die, 70 rescued after ship sinks in Indonesia

Rescuers have evacuated 70 people and continued searching for one missing person after a small wooden ship sank in eastern Indonesia on Monday due to overload, killing 10 people, officials said on Tuesday.

Head of Search and Rescue Office in East Nusa Tenggara province, Hermanto da Gomes, earlier put the death toll at 11, but he revised it down on Tuesday.

Gomes said that there were 81 people on board the ship.

"The ship is overloaded. Based on the ship capacity, it should have carried half of the people," he told Xinhua by phone from East Nusa Tenggara.

Search has been under way to find the missing person, said Gomes.

The ship sank on Monday morning at waters of Lewoleba after leaving from Bolang village of the province.

Sea accident has been frequent in Indonesia due to neglect of safety standard.

Source: Xinhua