JAKARTA, Indonesia
Emergency services continued to pull bodies from two of Indonesia's rivers Friday after the Muslim Eid holiday was marked with grief in two separate ferry sinkings.
Rescuers have now recovered 20 bodies from Barombang River in North Sumatra province, after a boat carrying 48 passengers capsized Thursday after colliding with an underwater forest.
"Six of [the deceased] were children between the ages of 7 months and 11 years," Labuhan Police Head of Ops Commissioner Hutagaol – many Indonesians use only one name – told the Anadolu Agency on Friday.
Rescue workers managed to rescue the other 28 passengers.
Meanwhile, officers found two more bodies in Central Kalimantan province, where a ferry with 70 passengers on board sank on Kapuas - Indonesia’s longest river - on Tuesday. A total of 51 people survived the accident.
"The death toll stands at 17," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management, told AA.
Accidents resulting from overcrowded boats and lax safety standards are common on Indonesia's waterways, which serve as a widespread form of transportation in some areas of the country.
During Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Ramadan fasting month, millions of Indonesian Muslims travel to their hometowns to visit their families for weeklong festivities.
