INDONESIA has expanded the search for seven fishermen still missing after a rescue team found three more survivors of a capsized boat in waters near the Anak Krakatau volcano, officials said today.

A motorboat carrying 16 people sank on Thursday due to strong waves in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra.

Six survivors were found after the accident, and today, Indonesia’s rescue agency said three more were rescued from a traditional fishing boat, which found them floating.

Efforts to find them were extended to a “20-25km radius to find the seven people still missing”, said Heru Amir, a search-and-rescue official in the Banten province.

The three survivors told rescuers that the seven fishermen tried to swim to a nearby island using objects they took from the capsized boat, including jerrycans, according to Amir.

“The distance from the spot where the three survivors were found to a nearby island is 10 nautical miles,” Amir said.

Boat accidents are common in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, due to lax safety standards.

In January, 10 people went missing after a boat carrying 20 migrant workers to neighbouring Malaysia capsized off the coast of Sumatra island. – AFP, June 21, 2020.