Nine killed in Indonesia boat accident

JAKARTA - Nine people have been killed and at least four others missing after a ferry boat sank off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, media reports said Sunday.

The boat was carrying around 60 people when it went down Saturday afternoon in strong winds a kilometre off the Dumai coast in Riau province, detik.com reported citing survivors.

Nine bodies and 43 survivors had been rescued Sunday morning. All the passengers were going to attend a wedding function.

Rescue workers continued the search for at least four people still missing and feared drowned, said Syahrudin, the chief of the Dumai marine police.

More than 300 people were killed when a ferry sank off Sulawesi island in January, and in December 2006 a ferry sank in a storm off the coast of Java, killing more than 500 people.