Update | 13 rescued two days after Indonesia tourist boat sinks as two foreigners remain missing

Eight foreigners and five Indonesians were rescued on Monday two days after their tourist boat sank during a storm in the archipelago, having survived by huddling in a lifeboat or floating in their life jackets.

The rescue brought to 23 the number of people saved since the vessel sank on Saturday as it headed from Lombok island to Komodo island, famed as the home of the Komodo dragon, the world’s biggest lizard.

Among them were 18 foreign tourists, from New Zealand, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy. Some of the group rescued on Sunday had to swim hours to the closest island, Sangeang, even though there was a volcano erupting on it at the time.

Two foreigners remain missing. Those rescued on Monday were found in the early hours some 100km off the coast of Sumbawa island, which is close to Sangeang, a search official said.

“They were all found together, some in a lifeboat and some floating with their life jackets on around 100km off Sape,” on the east of Sumbawa, said rescue official Budiawan, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Budiawan, head of the search and rescue agency on Lombok island which lies to the west of Sumbawa, said they were now in the town of Sape.