10 killed as ship sinks in Indonesia

A small ship sank in waters of East Nusa Tenggara in eastern parts of Indonesia on Monday. Ten people were killed.

The ship sank at waters of Lewoleba after leaving from Bolang village of the East Nusa Tenggara.

Rescuers have evacuated 70 people safely and searched one missing person, Head of Search and Rescue office in East Nusa Tenggara province Hermanto da Gomes said.

So far, there has been no immediate official report about the cause of the accident on the passenger ship, but Gomes said that it could be overloading, as the number of people on board was double the ship's capacity.

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

Based on the ship's manifest, there were 81 people on board, but the figure could be more than that as the manifest of the small ship some times was not accurate, said Gomes.

"It has been common to happen here," he said.

The head of the rescue office said that an official report about the cause of the accident would be issued by investigators from the transport ministry.


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