Kendari, SE Sulawesi (ANTARA) - The police have identified the bodies of seven people killed in a fire that broke out aboard MV Izhar in the waters of Bokori Island in Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi Province.

The identities of the seven people were established on the basis of the results of post mortem conducted at the Police Hospital in Southeast Sulawesi, spokesman for the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Police Commissioner Agus Mulyadi revealed on Saturday.

"The bodies of six of the seven people killed in the fire have been handed over to their families, who claimed them at the hospital. The other body is still kept at the mortuary of the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Hospital while awaiting its family from Central Sulawesi," he stated.

The seven people killed in the accident were identified as Syamsiah Lewa aged 70; 45-year-old Nurianti; four-year-old Hakal; Salima Lasmi, aged 45; Omang and Samuai, both 38 years old; and two-year-old Naura.

MV Izhar, carrying aboard 72 passengers and eight crew members, got engulfed in fire en route from Kendari Port to Salabangka, Central Sulawesi Province, on Friday, August 16, 2019, at 23:30 Wita (Central Indonesia Standard Time).

A joint team of rescue workers from the Kendari city disaster mitigation board, the police, and military, with assistance of the local people managed to evacuate 61 people, while seven people were killed, and four are yet missing.

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Translator: Sarjono/Suharto
Editor: Sri Haryati
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