Nearly 200 evacuated from grounded Indonesian ferry

Police officials in Indonesia have reported the successful rescue of all 175 passengers of a ferry that ran aground in the waters of Bangka Belitung Islands province on Tuesday, August 8.

The locally-registered Ro-Pax ferry Star Belitung had earlier departed Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta and was approaching its final destination of the city of Pangkalpinang when its hull made bottom contact at the entrance to the Baturusa River on the morning (local time) of Tuesday.

A number of police patrol boats and rescue craft arrived in the area within minutes to render assistance.

Due to the responding vessels’ small size, their crews needed to complete multiple trips to the grounded ferry to safely evacuate all 175 passengers.

No serious injuries have been reported.

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