The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jakarta

At least 31 people were killed and 125 rescued after a ferry sank off Indonesia's Sulawesi island in the latest of a series of transport accidents to hit the archipelago nation, officials said Friday.

Residents near the town of Bau Bau on southeast Sulawesi heard survivors screaming and pleading for help after the Acita 03 capsized at about 9:00 pm (1300 GMT) Thursday, ElShinta radio reported.

The 22-metre (-yard) long ship sank several miles (kilometres) from shore when passengers clambered to the boat's roof to make mobile phone calls when they couldn't get a signal, transport ministry official Djoni Algamar told AFP. "The ship lost its balance and capsized," he said, adding that only 60 names had been on the ship's manifest.

ElShinta's reporter said 151 people were believed to be on board, while the mayor of Bau Bau, Amirul Tamim, told the radio station that 188 people were on the ferry and several dozens thought to be missing.

Indonesian ferries frequently carry far more passengers than the number officially registered.

Officials at Bau Bau general hospital told AFP that 30 bodies had arrived at the hospital's morgue and they had been told one more was on its way. Nineteen survivors were being treated for shock. A hospitalised survivor, Safruddin, told ElShinta that he had been travelling from his home village to work on Sulawesi after the one-week holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.