Indonesia ferry fire kills 11, survivors returning

JAKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) At least 11 people died after a fire on an Indonesian ferry off Jakarta Bay today, with some desperate passengers hurling themselves off the blazing vessel into the sea, a navy official and a survivor said.

The Levina I was on its way to Bangka island off Sumatra when it caught fire soon after dawn 80 km from Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.

TV footage of the stricken vessel showed huge plumes of thick black smoke emerging from the ferry's lower decks.

One of the first survivors to be brought back to Jakarta described panic when the crew told passengers a fire had broken out in the lower deck loaded with motorcycles and cars.

''It was dark. The first thing I did was look for a lifebuoy and then jumped into the sea. I saw someone jump without a lifebuoy who died,'' said the passenger, who gave his name as Mursid.

Colonel Didin Z A, who heads the navy rescue team, told reporters in the port that 11 people had died, including three children.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hendra Pakan of the Indonesian navy's western fleet said by telephone that a navy ship had reported the vessel was still on fire, contradicting an earlier official who said that the blaze had been put out.

''It looks like the fire has got bigger,'' he said.

The port was crowded with anxious relatives of the passengers, as ambulances and paramedics stood ready to treat the survivors.

A visibly shocked woman was comforted by a relative.

There remained confusion over the exact number on board the stricken vessel and whether everyone had been evacuated.

STRING OF DISASTERS Earlier, Pakan said more than 200 people on board were being evacuated and rescue vessels were combing waters nearby for passengers who had jumped overboard to escape the heat.

Pakan said information so far indicated 226 people had survived including 15 crew.

Passenger numbers on Indonesian ferries are frequently inaccurately recorded on manifests, and officials sometimes turn a blind eye to overcrowding.

Hambar Wiyadi, a spokesman at the Tanjung Priok port passenger terminal, said there were 228 registered passengers, but this did not include truck drivers and driving assistants.

''There were eight cars and 42 truck-like vehicles in the boat,'' said Wiyadi, adding that from a rough count this could mean more than 320 people were on board.

''Our branch only deals with the passengers while the trucks entered through a different way.'' 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 not always strictly enforced and accidents occur fairly often.

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

That disaster was followed by the disappearance on New Year's Day of a Boeing 737-400 operated by budget airline Adam Air with 102 people on board. The evidence suggests that plane crashed into the sea off western Sulawesi in bad weather.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has set up a task force to examine the country's shoddy transport system.

REUTERS BDP MIR KP1440