Ferry Fleeing Violence in Moluccas Sinks; Nearly 500 Are Feared Dead

Hundreds of refugees fleeing religious fighting in the Molucca Islands were feared drowned Thursday after their overloaded ship sank without a trace in stormy waters off eastern Indonesia.

Radio contact with the vessel, carrying nearly 500 passengers and crew, was lost after its captain radioed that it was fast taking on water during a violent storm, the National Search and Rescue Agency said.

“There are four ships searching, but they have found no sign of the vessel,” said Col. Yaneman Besau, a navy base chief in Manado, capital of North Sulawesi province.

The ship sank about 40 nautical miles off the northern coast of Sulawesi, about 1,365 miles northeast of Jakarta, the capital, after leaving the island of Halmahera on Tuesday, officials said.

Heavy seas hampered the search. The closest land is Siau island, about 40 miles to the west. There were no immediate plans for an aerial search, officials said.

The boat was on a journey of more than 200 miles to Manado from the Moluccas, formerly known as the Spice Islands, a corner of the Indonesian archipelago where violence between Muslims and Christians has killed nearly 3,000 people of both faiths in the past 18 months.