A ship carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew members sank in rough seas in waters off Baturoro in Majene regency, West Sulawesi, on Sunday.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry’s crisis center, said six people had been confirmed dead in the accident, Reuters reported.

A joint search-and-rescue team pulled 150 passengers from the water, and 18 others were rescued by fishermen.

The ship had departed from Pare-pare in South Sulawesi at 5:45 p.m. local time (4:45 p.m. Jakarta time) on Saturday on a voyage through the Makassar Strait to Samarinda, capital of East Kalimantan.

The ship sank at about 4 a.m. after being hit by a cyclone in rough seas.

“There’s currently a tropical cyclone that is causing tides of 5 to 6 meters,” Jusman Syafi’i Djamal told Reuters.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the missing persons had not been acounted for.

"We still don't know whether they had lifejackets on when the ship was hit, and it happened at dawn so most people were probably asleep," he said.

The 747-ton ship, skippered by captain Sabir, sent its last transmission at 2 a.m. to the Pare-pare port, the port administrator Nurwahidah said.

The ship was seaworthy and was not overcrowded, port authority official Taufik said.

“The accident was purely caused by bad weather,” he added.

Hundreds of ships have been lost in Indonesian waters, many due to overcrowding or poor maintenance.

In December 2006, about 500 people were killed when a ship sank during a storm in the Java Sea.

Majene Police reported that 18 passengers -- including three crew members and the captain -- had been found alive by local fishermen.

A worker at the Majene port master office, Bakri, said his office had learned of the accident at about 4 p.m. after the ship’s cook Ahmad, who was among the rescued passengers, filed a report with the port master office.

Ahmad said the ship had been capsized by waves that had risen 2 meters above the deck of the ship.

Authorities said it was likely the ship sank about 50 kilometers from the coast.

In Samarinda, 12 residents gave the names of 34 relatives onboard the ship, according to Samarinda seaport police chief Adj. Comr. Handoko.

He said other passengers’ relatives might still be unaware of the accident. “The ship was scheduled to arrive in Samarinda on Monday at 8 a.m.,” he said.

Police have assigned a team to gather and distribute information about the accident.

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