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16 die in ferry fire

Jakarta: A fire broke out on an Indonesian ferry carrying 300 persons on Thursday, killing at least 16 and sending panicked passengers jumping into the sea, officials and witnesses said. One woman slipped beneath the waves while clutching her 18-month-old daughter. More than a dozen persons remained unaccounted for following the country's second major maritime disaster in as many months. The pre-dawn fire started in a truck on the Levina 1's car deck, hours after the 2,000-tonne vessel left the capital, Jakarta, for the north-western island of Bangka. The cause was not immediately known. Aerial footage showed flames and smoke rising from the 27-year-old ferry as authorities launched a massive rescue operation, plucking 275 survivors from the Java Sea. A cargo hand said a woman handed him her 18-month-old baby and then jumped overboard. — AP

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