There were 236 people on board the vessel when it left Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, for Makassar on Sulawesi island on Sunday morning, search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit said.Nanang told Kompas TV on Monday 229 people had been rescued alive and five bodies were also recovered."Mathematically, only two that have yet to be evacuated. We are confirming this data with the shipowner," he said.Numbers provided by officials have fluctuated wildly. The last toll given on Sunday was 41 people missing and five dead from a total manifest of 271 people.Arman Asmara Syarifuddin, an East Java police official, told Kompas TV on Monday some 28 people were still missing.The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.The fire broke out on Sunday morning as passengers were eating breakfast, survivor Muhammad Abdul Karim told reporters in Surabaya after disembarking from a rescue vessel."Initially, the smoke entered the information room, the sleeping quarters. And then explosions happened," he said.The blaze originated in the stern, sending passengers fleeing to the bow where they were all given life jackets, Muhammad said.
Five people were killed and another 41 were missing after an Indonesian ferry caught fire at sea, search and rescue officials said © Handout / INDONESIA'S NATIONAL SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS)/AFP
