Bali Boat Sinks Killing 17 Wedding Party Guests

At least 17 people have drowned and two dozen are missing after their boat sank on the way to a wedding on the resort island of Bali, officials say.

Search teams found eight survivors of the accident, which happened after the captain reported an engine failure off the Indonesian island of Java.

There were three children among the dead, according to one local official.

Emergency teams have now called off their search for the boat, which had been carrying 49 passengers.

"The search was called off in the evening because the waves were very big and it was getting dark," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's national disaster agency.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the boat had set sail from Raas island in East Java province on Monday.

Authorities were first alerted to trouble when the captain reported that an engine had failed due to a damaged propeller, AP reported.

Rescue boats and two helicopters were then dispatched to help locate the wedding party, said Muhamad Hernanto, the local search and rescue agency chief.

*Original story: BBC News via Google News (search term: Boat)
*Image credit: Flickr/Toby Oxborrow