JAKARTA: At least two people were dead and some 45 missing after a passenger ship disappeared in rough seas in eastern Indonesia. “There are still about 45 people missing. There were about 70 people on the boat,” said Karim Tuanaya, an official with the port authority in Ambon, the city where the boat was due to dock. “Twenty-three survivors were found and two people were found dead, both of them children,” he told AFP.

“They are all now on board a Pertamina oil tanker... The tanker is still on location because the weather is bad, with strong currents, rain and it’s very dark,” he said. Tuanaya said the tanker had heard people screaming for help in the water and was staying in the area in the hope of finding more survivors.—AFP