Rescuers battling high waves have recovered debris but no sign yet of four missing passengers near Padar Island.
A Spanish man and three of his children are missing after a tourist boat sank in rough seas in Indonesia, rescuers told AFP on Saturday.
The vessel was carrying 11 people when it sank in the Padar Island Strait near the popular tourist destination of Labuan Bajo on Friday night, state news agency Antara said.
Survivors pulled from the sea
The missing man’s wife and one of their daughters were among seven people rescued, along with four crew members and a tour guide, according to the search mission.
The search continued on Saturday for the remaining four passengers — a father, two boys and a girl.
The mission’s coordinator, Fathur Rahman, said in a statement to AFP that his team had found debris and parts of the vessel’s hull near where the boat went down.
However, the search off Padar was hampered by difficult weather and sea conditions, with strong currents and waves reaching 1.5 metres (five feet), Fathur Rahman said.
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The island was closed to visitors due to extreme weather conditions.
The Labuan Bajo port authority attributed the sinking to high waves of up to three metres (10 feet), Antara said.
“This made it difficult for us to carry out the initial search,” port authority chief Stephanus Risdiyanto told the agency.
Search teams face worsening conditions
Video released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed emergency workers in blue uniforms helping people, some barefoot, out of an inflatable orange boat and onto shore.
Other footage showed people in lifejackets sitting on a rescue boat, and a similar vessel kicking up spray as it motored across the waves in the dark.
Maritime accidents occur regularly in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, often due to lax safety standards and bad weather.
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