Indonesian Cargo Ships Collide, 9 Missing

MAKASSAR, Indonesia — Rescuers saved 11 people, including a 1-year-old girl, from choppy waters off central Indonesia but searched Thursday for nine others still missing from a ship that sank after colliding with another cargo vessel.

The TRISAL PRATAMA sank shortly after colliding with the INDIMATAM in the Makassar Strait, Wednesday near Selayar island off South Sumatra province.

Survivors included a crewmember who swam without a lifejacket while holding the baby, whose parents were navigators aboard the ship. The man said the baby's mother had given the child to him for safekeeping.

The baby's parents and 3-year-old brother were missing, along with six crewmembers from the ship, which was carrying 2,000 tons of cement from Makassar to Flores island.

All 14 crewmembers on the other vessel, which was carrying scrap metal from Papua to Makassar, survived the accident.