JAKARTA: Five survivors from a passenger boat that sank off eastern Indonesia, including a seven-year-old girl, have been rescued after floating at sea for three days, a rescue official said on Sunday.
The vessel, which was carrying more than 70 people, sank on Wednesday as it sailed near Selayar, a small island south of the larger Sulawesi.
Survivors told rescuers they had been part of a group of 25 people earlier reported as missing before becoming separated from the others by heavy winds.
“After the ship sank, each of them saved themselves using whatever equipment or makeshift flotation they could find,” local search-and-rescue official Muhammad Arif Anwar told AFP.
“They rigged together jerry cans and pieces of cork tied up with rope, then climbed on top of them.”
