At least 23 people were killed and another 17 injured after a fire ripped through a boat carrying tourists to islands north of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, authorities said on Sunday.The boat, which was heading for the Thousand Islands, reportedly caught fire shortly after leaving Muara Angke port in North Jakarta early on Sunday due to a short circuit on a power generator on the boat.Altogether 251 people had been on the boat, and 194 of those were brought to safety by rescue services.Survivors were treated at a hospital in Jakarta, where relatives of the dead also gathered."Thick smoke suddenly emerged, blanketing the cabin. All passengers panicked and ran up to the deck to throw floats into water. In a split second, the fire became bigger, it was coming from where the fuel is stored," one survivor, Ardi, told Reuters TV.Rescuers and investigators continued to search the boat which was docked at a harbor in Jakarta.Sea accidents are frequent in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago, with vessels often overloaded and having too few life jackets on boat.
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