Indonesian ferry with hundreds aboard catches fire

May 18, 2008, 10:09 GMT

Jakarta - A ferry carrying more than 700 people caught fire in rough seas off the Central Kalimantan province of the Indonesian portion of Borneo Island, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials and local media reports said.

The Dharma Kencana ferry with 712 people on board, was en route from the Central Java port of Semarang to Sampit port in central Kalimantan when it caught fire at about 12:45 pm (0545 GMT), said the chief of the East Kotawaringin district, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Djihartono.

Djihartono said that efforts were underway by the ship's crew members, aided by the Indonesian marine police and local fishermen, to extinguish the blaze.

A local harbour official was quoted as saying by Kompas Cyber Media online that there were no casualties in the blaze.

'We received reports from the scene that there were no reports of casualties so far from the accident,' Djihartono was quoted as saying.

It was the latest sea accident in Indonesia in recent years. In late December 2006, a passenger ferry carrying more than 600 passengers capsized in rough seas off Java island and more than 300 of them remain missing.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands and ferries provide popular and cheap transportation for the country's more than 225 million people. However, the government has failed to enforce strict safety standards.