At least six dead in Indonesia ferry fire -navy

JAKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) At least six people died after fire broke out on an Indonesian ferry carrying more than 350 passengers off Jakarta Bay today, the navy said. The Levina I was on its way to Bangka island when it caught fire soon after dawn (80 km) from Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.

''The information from the ship's captain so far says 211 survived and six are dead, two of them children,'' Lieutenant-Colonel Hendra Pakan, the western fleet spokesman, told Radio Elshinta.

The status of the other passengers the navy had said were on board was not clear. It was also not clear if the fire was still burning.

The navy said in a statement that the western fleet had deployed five vessels and two planes to search for the ship.

A Navy official told Reuters by telephone that the first ship was expected to reach the area of the stricken ferry in one hour.

Ferries are a popular means of transport among the 17,000 islands of Indonesia, where sea connections are cheaper and more available than air routes. But safety standards are often not strictly enforced and many ferries are overcrowded.

A ferry carrying around 600 passengers capsized late December off Java island and more than half of the passengers are believed to have died.

REUTERS SY VC1002