Overloaded boat catches fire in Indonesia - 23 dead, another 17 missing

Fire in an overloaded boat Zahro Express that was carrying more than 260 people has left 23 dead with another 17 missing. The boat was going from a port near Jakarta to Tidung which is a resort island in the Kepulauan Seribu chain.
Most of the passengers were Indonesians who were celebrating the New Year holiday. The Jakarta Search and Rescue Agency has indicated that at least five ships and a number of speedboats and rubber boats have been deployed in the search.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 2 January 2017.

The fire had gutted about half the vessel, and twenty bodies that were found inside the vessel were burned beyond recognition and were transferred to a police hospital for identification. The fire apparently broke out about 15 minutes after the ferry had left the port of Muara Angke.
The ferry’s passenger manifest indicated that only 100 were registered as passengers, along with six crewmen but, in reality, there were nearly 260 passengers.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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