Hundred Saved But Four Asylum Seekers Dead After Boat Capsizes

Cianjur, West Java, July 24 (Antara) - More than a hundred alleged asylum seekers were saved but four died after their boat, that would carry them to Christmas Island, capsized in the Indian Ocean off Cianjur, West Java. "Efforts meanwhile are still being made to find those reported missing in the incident," a Red Cross official said here on Wednesday. Ruddy Syahdiar from the Red Cross (PMI) chapter in Cianjur said PMI in cooperation with the police and the military had deployed personnel to scour the beach to find possible survivors. A team from police Mobile Brigade meanwhile had gone to the sea to find those missing in the sea reportedly numbering in ten. Cianjur resort police chief, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Dedy Kusuma Bakti said his team would work until evening for the next three days according to procedures to find the reported missing people. "We still have yet to confirm how many people they are actually. According to some of them they number hundreds but it has not yet been verified," he said. The alleged asylum seekers from several Middle Eastern countries were gathered at Jayanti beach in Cianjur and taken to the sea using a fishing boat, a survivor from Iran, Ali Umar (42) said. He said the boat capsized after reaching the middle of the sea with water pouting into the boat forcing the passengers to plunge into the sea. "There were about 250 people aboard and they all panicked after seeing water in the boat and we were then separated from one another. We left together from Jakarta," he said. Umar said he hoped his wife would survive.