INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As the ship sinks, the people try to get out to safety.Lake Sulawesi, Indonesia: The captain of a sinking Indonesian ferry managed to steer
his ship onto a reef to enable the evacuation of more than 100 passengers, but 31 people drowned as the vessel floundered in stormy seas,
officials said on Wednesday.The latest ferry disaster in Indonesia, which happened on Tuesday near Sulawesi island, came two weeks after an
overcrowded ferry sank on Lake Toba in Sumatra, one of the world's deepest volcanic lakes, with the death of more than 200 people.The
national search and rescue agency said the boat that ran into trouble near Sulawesi had been carrying 164 passengers and crew
Three passengers were missing but 130 had been rescued, a transport ministry official said.The ferry was also carrying 48 vehicles when it
began taking on water in bad weather."The captain ran it onto a reef so it wouldn't sink and to make the evacuation of passengers easier,"
Purnomo, the director general of sea transportation, said in a statement."The captain and the owner of the ship were the last two people to
come down from the passenger ship," he added.Television images showed dozens of passengers hanging on to the keeling vessel or bobbing in
the water wearing life jackets.Indonesia, a vast archipelago made up of more than 17,000 islands, suffers frequent boat accidents, with
basic safety rules often flouted and vessels overloaded.After last month's sinking in Sumatra, one of the deadliest in nearly a decade, a
two-week search and rescue effort found the vessel at a depth of 450 m (1,500 ft) with victims trapped inside, but technical and logistical
challenges forced the recovery to be called off.© Thomson Reuters 2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
