Search continues for missing tugboat crew

Search and rescue operations continue for remaining missing seamen of a capsized tugboat on Singapore Strait on Saturday.

“The water is deep, it is very difficult to look for the victims,” Bintan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Johanes Widodo told tempointeraktif.com.

According to report by Singapore-based The Strait Times, salvage divers have recovered the bodies of three more missing crewmen on Friday, bringing the total number pulled from the wreckage area to seven.

Two survivors - the chief and third engineer - were rescued several hours after the ill-fated tugboat Ocean Lark sank about 45 nautical miles from Singapore at about 5 am on Wednesday morning, with 13 men onboard.

The earlier four bodies - recovered on Wednesday and Thursday - were found on the Singapore-registered vessel, which is still underwater at a depth of about 25 metres. The 757-tonne vessel was traveling from Batam to Tarempa Natuna in Riau Islands when it sank.