As of Monday evening, rescue teams have recovered some 189 survivors and six bodies in Mandalika waters in Indonesia's Central Java province where a passenger ship sank on Sunday night, an official said at Rembang.

 

Some survivors have been taken care in hospitals and some others have gone home, Kusnan, an official from the Transportation Ministry told Xinhua.

 

Out of the six dead bodies, four have not be identified.

 

He said the ill-fated ship carried 545 passengers with tickets including crews. But he did not know how many people without tickets on board the ship.

 

Hundreds of local people and members of the victims' families are gathering along the coastline and harbors to witness evacuation of the victims of the ill-fated Senopati Nusantara ferry en route from Central Kalimantan to Semarang's Emas Port.

 

The ship was believed to have 628 people on board.

 

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said that the government will continue searching for and saving the victims of the Senopati Nusantara vessel.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)