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Four Australian tourists and three Indonesian crew were missing off the eastern coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Monday after their wooden speedboat lost contact in bad weather, the national rescue agency said.
The 10-metre vessel was travelling from North Nias Island to Aceh’s Banyak Island. The boat lost contact at around 6pm on Sunday. A search was under way on Monday but the operation was called off as night fell.
“We will continue the search operation on Tuesday morning,” the head of Nias’s rescue agency, Oktavianto, told Reuters. The four tourists were among a group of 12 Australians travelling to Banyak Island. The other eight were in another boat.
The group was in a wooden speedboat in the waters around Sarang Alu and Banyak islands in Aceh Singkil district. They were part of a group of 12 Australian nationals and five Indonesians who were travelling to Pinang Island in two boats.
The area is known as a tourist destination with white sand beaches and good waves for surfing.
The boats left North Nias port in Nias island, which located around 150km from Indonesia’s Sumatra island, on Sunday afternoon and experienced bad weather with very heavy rain during the trip.
Ten of them decided to stay and shelter on Sarang Alu island, while the others continued the trip, said a written statement from Nias Search and Rescue Agency on Monday.
The resort on Pinang Island later reported to the agency that the boat with 10 passengers had safely arrived, but the boat that had left earlier had not been seen.
Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, and ferries and boats are a common form of transportation.
