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Jakarta [Indonesia]: At least 15 people have died after a ferry sank off Sulawesi island of Indonesia, Al Jazeera reported on Monday citing local authorities.

Authorities are looking for 19 individuals who are still missing after the boat carrying 40 passengers sank after midnight (16:00 GMT), Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency said today. According to the agency, six passengers were rescued and are being treated in hospital.

“The search will be conducted by dividing into two teams. The first team will dive around the accident site,” Al Jazeera quoted Muhamad Arafah, head of the local search and rescue agency in Kendari city in Southeast Sulawesi as saying in a statement.

“The second team will conduct a sweep above the water surface around the accident site using a rubberboat and longboat,” he added.

In Indonesia, the nation with the biggest archipelago in the world with more than 17,000 islands, ferry accidents are not unusual.

Up to 192 persons perished in 2018 when a ferry carrying too many passengers capsized and sank in Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, according to Al Jazeera.

Moreover, a ferry carrying more than 800 people also capsized in May last year in the waters outside the province of East Nusa Tenggara. In the incident, no one was wounded.
Further details are awaited as the rescue operation is underway.