Local authorities in Indonesia continue search operations after a motorboat with 50 passengers sank in the Makassar Strait on Thursday.
Thirty-one people have been rescued but 19 are still missing.
The boat departed at midnight from Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi province, bound for an outer island, and capsized at around 03:30 am.
The search for the missing has been expanded from the point of the disaster.
Authorities said the ship could have run out of fuel, leaving it adrift, and was then hit by high waves.
A survivor said, “We didn’t know where the other passengers were because the waves were very high, at around 2.5 to 3 meters. Plus, the wind was strong and it was raining heavily. That’s why we couldn’t see much.”
The ship was a wooden cargo vessel, not intended for transporting passengers. It is unknown why it was being used for this purpose.
