Rescue Searching for Victims in Maluku

Ambon (Antara Bali) - A rescue team resumed search for a  vessel with more than ten people on board reported missing since last Friday.

The KM.Merlin  was on its way from  Nila  to Waipia on the island of Seram in the regency of  Maluku Tengah.

The motor vessel  was drifting to follow the sea current after it ran out of fuel in the Banda sea off Manuk on Thursday night, according Olop Saryoa, one of four passengers, who were brought to land by local fishermen .

Olop and three other passengers  Aspenas Tenmury, Ely Saryoa  and  Ny.Windy Romer reported to the port authority in Ambon where they had been brought to land by the fishermen on Sunday.

The passengers managed to make contact with the chief of the Teon, Nila  and  Serua sub-district when the vessel was dragged by the current to near Tepa  in the regency of Maluku Barat Daya.

"We also succeeded in making contact with Suyanto Samijan, the head of the Search and Rescure Agency of Ambon, but we managed only to tell him our general location.  Communication  could not last long as the hand phone battery ran out of power," Olop said, adding "we lost contact since Friday night." (*/DWA)