Indonesian navy evacuates ferry after fire, 7 dead

JAKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) At least seven people died after fire broke out on an Indonesian ferry off Jakarta Bay today, a navy official said.

The blaze was now out and more than 200 people on board were being evacuated.

Two children were among the dead and rescue vessels were combing waters nearby in case passengers had jumped into the sea to escape the heat, said Lieutenant-Colonel Hendra Pakan of the Indonesian navy's western fleet.

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.

''Seven have died. Five adults and two children. We are concentrating on saving people,'' Pakan said by telephone.

''We are still looking for (anyone unaccounted for) by combing through the waters. They may have jumped into the sea because the ferry was hot due to the fire,'' he added.

Another navy official, Major Abdul Kadir, said the smouldering ship was still afloat.

Pakan said information so far indicated that 226 people had survived including 15 crew, although he was waiting for more information from other ships in the area.

Earlier, the navy said that more than 350 people had been on board the ferry, but officials later said the number on board was unclear.

Passenger numbers on Indonesian ferries are frequently inaccurate with logs providing little clarity and officials sometimes turning 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 often not strictly enforced and accidents occur fairly often.

A ferry carrying around 600 passengers capsized in late December off Java island and more than half of the 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 plane is believed to have 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 SY DB1210