Indonesian Health Ministry on Sunday evening reported 243 people had been rescued after Dumai Express 10 ferry sank in waters off Riau province of Indonesia, head of crisis center of the ministry Rustam Pakaya said here.
Over 50 people were still missing, and the rescuers have found 15 dead bodies out of about 300 people on board the ferry.
Earlier, rescuers decided Sunday evening to temporarily stop searching for the missing people, coordinator of the rescue mission Yasin Kosasih said. Kosasih, who is also police chief at the province, said that the mission will resume on Monday.
"We stop searching for them now because it is difficult to search in the darkness. Besides, the wave is more than three meters high now and the wind is very strong," he told Xinhua from a rescuing boat along with other boats heading to the nearest town of Tanjung Balai Karimun to bring back the bodies they have found.
The number of fatality may increase if those still missing were in the waters, as they can't hang on until Monday.
"When we arrived at the scene, many people were floating in the waters. They were weak. Several of them were dead," he said.
Kosasih said that all the survivors had been evacuated to the town for medical treatment at a local hospital.
The Dumai Express 10, on rout of Batam to Dumai port in the province, sank at 9:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) and 50 minutes before the mishap, another ferry Dumai Express 15 was stranded, but all the 278 people on board survived.