At least four dead, dozens missing as ferry sinks off Bali

Rough seas and winds hamper rescue, no official word yet on passengers' nationalities

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At least four people died, 30 are missing and 31 survived after a ferry carrying 65 people sank near the Indonesian island of Bali, the country's Search and Rescue agency said on Thursday, as rescuers raced to find victims in the rough sea.

The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java province's Banyuwangi port on its way to Bali late on Wednesday, the agency said on Thursday.

The boat was carrying 53 passengers and 12 crew members, as well as 22 vehicles, the agency said.

A search for the missing is underway although it is being hampered by strong currents and winds, the agency said, adding it had deployed a helicopter to the location and 13 underwater rescuers.

Video provided by the national rescue agency Basarnas showed what appeared to be the body of one person being carried to shore from a fishing boat in calm seas.

There has been no official statement on the nationalities of the passengers, but a manifest list broadcast by news channel MetroTV indicated there were no foreigners on board.

Read: Bali blackout: Cable fault causes power failure on Indonesian island

Ferries are a common mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, and accidents are common as lax safety standards often allow vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment.

Rescuers said they were still assessing if there were more people onboard than the ferry's manifest showed. 

It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.

The ferry from Java to Bali takes around one hour and is often used by people crossing between the islands by car. It was unclear if any foreigners were onboard when the ferry sank.

Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather. 

In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.

A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.

And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra island.