At least five people have died and 41 remain missing after a passenger ferry caught fire off Indonesia's Madura Island while traveling between Surabaya and Makassar, according to the country's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
The captain reported the fire as the KMP Mutiara Sentosa 2 was sailing from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city in East Java, to Makassar in South Sulawesi.
Videos broadcast by Indonesian news outlet iNews showed dozens of passengers wearing life jackets gathered aboard what appeared to be a lifeboat.
Other footage captured passengers climbing down from the burning ferry as flames and thick smoke engulfed the upper sections of the vessel.
Basarnas said its Surabaya Search and Rescue Office received the first report of the incident at 08:24 local time (02:24 GMT).
According to the agency, information provided by the ferry operator indicated that the fire broke out between 06:00 and 07:00 local time (00:00–01:00 GMT).
Authorities later confirmed that the ferry was "almost entirely engulfed in flames," with many passengers taking refuge on the bridge and the bow while awaiting rescue.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Videos from the scene also showed passengers jumping into the sea as rescue teams threw lifebuoys toward them before evacuating survivors aboard rescue vessels.