Bali ferry fire leaves 5 missing, 1 dead

Rescuers searched the Lombok Strait off Indonesia's Bali island on Thursday for five people missing after a ferry fire that killed one person and forced passengers overboard, officials said.

The ferry was travelling from Bali to Lombok when it ran into trouble in the early hours of Wednesday. A total of 211 people were rescued alive and brought ashore by vessels that went to the scene, including a navy ship and another ferry nearby. A 19-year-old Indonesian woman was found dead.

By Thursday, the search and rescue office in Mataram on Lombok said the operation had shifted to searching for five passengers who were still unaccounted for. Search and rescue official Muhamad Hariyadi said ships passing through the Lombok Strait had been asked to help or report any victims to the command post.

Survivor Kiky Okta Pradika, 25, told reporters in Lembar on Lombok that he grabbed a life jacket before jumping overboard with other passengers. Another survivor, Sutrisna, 45, said passengers panicked and scrambled for life jackets as lifeboats were lowered, and that high waves made evacuation difficult.

Marine accidents are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that relies heavily on boat transport. Five people died last week when a ferry caught fire off Java island. Last month, a ferry carrying more than 70 people sank near Selayar, south of Sulawesi; four bodies were recovered and the search ended with 14 people still officially missing.