Ship with more than 240 people missing in Indonesia

A passenger ship, Virgo Transport 8, with more than 240 people on board has gone missing in Indonesia. Contact with it was lost in the Java Sea during bad weather. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

The vessel departed from Surabaya in East Java province and was heading to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province. Contact with it was lost at around 02:00 local time on Sunday, September 13.

According to Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, the last known position of Virgo Transport 8 was approximately 80 nautical miles from the Basirih rescue pier in Banjarmasin.

The head of the Banjarmasin search and rescue office, I Putu Sudayana, said that the vessel's operator had passed information to the authorities that Virgo Transport 8 had encountered adverse weather conditions.

"The vessel operator reported the incident to the authorities after receiving information that the ship had encountered bad weather," said I Putu Sudayana.

According to preliminary data, the vessel left Surabaya on Saturday at 10:13 local time. According to the ship's manifest, there were 241 passengers on board. There is no information yet about deaths or injuries.

After contact was lost, rescuers began a search operation. A rescue vessel was dispatched to the presumed location of Virgo Transport 8's last known position.

According to Sudayana, the authorities will deploy all available forces and resources, since there were a large number of passengers and crew members on board. The search operation is being conducted jointly with maritime authorities and other relevant services.

Rescuers are also monitoring weather conditions in the area of the Java Sea where the vessel went missing.

Earlier, "Kursiv" wrote that the passenger ferry FILOJET, traveling from Kyrenia to the Turkish town of Tasucu, capsized off the coast of Northern Cyprus. As a result, at least seven people died, and another 23 were listed as missing.

There were 259 passengers and eight crew members on board. Rescuers managed to find 237 people alive.