Relatives of the more than 190 people missing after a boat sank on Lake Toba in Sumatra have asked government officials for a bigger search. The families also criticized the İndonesian government for ignoring unsafe conditions on passenger boats.

Disaster officials have raised the number of dead several times. Family members arrived at Lake Toba in northern Sumatra to seek information. But, there was no passenger list for the overcrowded wooden ferry. Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Muhammad Syaugi, spoke to reporters about the incident. The officials said the boat was built to hold 43 passengers, but was carrying about 200. It had only 45 life jackets designed to keep passengers from drowning.

Only 18 survivors were found within hours of the sinking on Monday. The boat sank in deep water half a kilometer from a popular island. It is possible many victims are still inside the sunken ferry, said North Sumatra province police chief Paulus Waterpau. “Many survivors told authorities that less than half of them had jumped into the water before the boat sank,” he told The Associated Press.

Suwarni had a 20-year-old son who was with his girlfriend on the ferry. She criticized the search and rescue operation as slow.

“What kind of government is this that can’t protect their own people from unnecessary accidents?” she asked.

The search has involved 350 people but they have found few bodies. Syaugi said only four deaths were confirmed after three more bodies were found on Wednesday.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”