A search is underway Sunday in central Indonesia for seven missing crew members of a cargo ship that sank in the waters off Sumbawa island.

Seven of the 14 crew members on board Multi Prima I ship, were rescued by Cahaya Abadi 208 ship, which was about 28 nautical miles north of the ship when it capsized due to billowing waves, head of Mataram SAR office I Nyoman Sidakarya told dpa.

‘We have deployed a SAR vessel this morning and it has reached the location of the incident but so far the operation has not resulted in anything,’ Sidakarya said.

‘It was already two days since the incident happened when we received the report, but we will continue to scour the waters to look for the missing persons for seven days in accordance to our procedure,’ he added.

Sidakarya said the cargo ship, which departed from Surabaya in East Java and was carrying construction materials and livestock feed to Waingapu in East Nusa Tenggara, sank Thursday about 6 pm (1000 GMT) but the SAR agency didn't receive the report about the incident until late Saturday.

‘According to the report, the ship was already drowned and nowhere to be seen when the seven crew members were rescued. They were floating as they were wearing life jackets,’ Sidakarya said.

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