At least nine people are dead or missing after a passenger boat packed with Muslims travelling home to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan caught fire and sank in eastern Indonesia, a rescue official said Saturday. The wooden boat, the Usaha Baru, was traveling between two coastal villages in Maluku province carrying 77 passengers and crew when a fire broke out in the engine, local search and rescue agency head Eddy Paays said. «It panicked people on board and they jumped off into the rough sea for safety,» Paays said. Eight were confirmed dead and a 2-year-old boy remained missing, he said. Rescue workers were searching for the child in waters near the fishing village of Salahutu, about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) east of the capital, Jakarta, he said. Everyone else on board made it safely to shore, many of them rescued by fishermen, and 35 were being treated at a hospital for burn injuries, Paays was quoting as saying by the Associated Press. He said almost all the passengers were traveling to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadhan.
