Rubber dinghies, speedboats and a local rowboat were used to search for the others.

The KM Cahaya Arafah had left Ternate Island seaport on Monday morning and was heading towards West Gane sub-district in South Halmahera district.

Ferry and boat tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transportation and safety rules may expire.

In 2018, an overcrowded ferry with around 200 people on board sank in a deep volcanic crater lake in the North Sumatra province, killing 167 people.

In one of the country’s worst recorded disasters, an overloaded passenger ship sank in February 1999 with 332 people on board. There were only 20 survivors.