Rough waters are complicating rescue efforts after the weekend capsize of a ship off the central Indonesian coast, with workers saying they have found 37 survivors and three bodies, but that 78 people are still missing.
The head of the Wajo disaster mitigation agency, Alamsyah, said the waters in Bone Bay, where the ship sunk, are getting choppier and are four to five metres high, but that a search-and-rescue ship would keep scouring the waters until nightfall on Sunday.
Alamsyah, who only uses one name as is common in Indonesia, said rescue officials have had reports that some of the missing passengers have been found by locals and have returned to their homes.
"We are still updating the data and verifying those reports," he said.
The ship sank on Saturday near the town of Siwa on the southeast of the island of Sulawesi.
The Marina Baru was carrying 118 people, including 10 crew members.
It departed Saturday morning from Kolaka in North Sulawesi for Siwa, on what should have been a six-hour journey.
Four of the 37 survivors were pulled out of the sea by a fisherman from Bone, South Sulawesi. One of the four survivors is a four-year-old boy, national broadcaster TV One reported.
"I found them about 20 miles off Siwa at about 2am. They were wearing life vests," the fisherman, Amiruddin, told TV One.
The ship began to take water in as it was nearing its destination.
