At least four people have died after a passenger ferry carrying 140 people sank off the coast of Indonesia. 

Authorities in the country scrambled on Tuesday to try and save stranded passengers after the boat sank off the coast of Sulawesi island, east of Borneo.

Terrified passengers onboard the vessel were forced to hurl themselves into the sea as it took on more and more water on Tuesday evening during a crossing from from Bira, on Sulawesi island, to Pamatata, on Selayar island.

The disaster comes in the wake of last month’s sinking of an overcrowded ferry on the southeast Asian nation’s Lake Toba, one of the world’s deepest volcanic lakes, which took about 200 lives.

At least four people were confirmed dead in Tuesday’s incident, the chief of South Sulawesi’s Selayar regency told broadcaster TVOne.

There were also vehicles on board the ferry when it filled with water and sank, media said. The vessel was close to shore at the time.

It was unclear how many people had been rescued, and television images showed dozens of passengers hanging on to the keeling vessel or bobbing in the water wearing life jackets.

Indonesia suffers frequent boat sinkings, with basic safety rules often flouted and vessels overloaded.

After last month’s sinking, one of the deadliest in nearly a decade, a two-week search and rescue effort located the vessel at a depth of 450 m (1,500 ft) with victims trapped inside, but technical and logistical challenges forced the recovery to be called off.

(Reporting by Tabita Diela; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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