At least 83 people have been rescued after a ship carrying more than 605 people sank at the waters off Indonesia's Central Java province earlier Saturday, the provincial Navy said.

Most of the rescued were pounded by strong wind and waves to the coast, said spokesman of the provincial Navy Leut. Colonel Toni Saiful.

"Many of the survivors have been found by sailors on the coast along the Central to East Java provinces," he told Xinhua over phone from Semarang, capital of the Central Java province.

He said the distance between the spot of the accident to the beach is relatively short, which is less than 20 miles.

"On average they survive, but many of them suffered from injuries," Saiful added.

Rescue work will continue during the night and on Sunday rescuers will try again to use two helicopters for searching, he said.

The passenger ship sank at about 00:00 Jakarta time, and the poor weather with giant waves was blamed for the cause of the sinking, according to Indonesian Armed Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Soenarto.

The Indonesian transport ministry has temporarily banned sailing from Java to Kalimantan islands which passes the waters, he said.

East Java provincial Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has also warned against sailing in the north waters of the Java Island within the next three days due to the bad weather, according to Antara news agency report.

Ships and ferries are favorable transport means for local people between some 17,000 islands in the vast archipelago country for its cheaper cost compared with air transport. But the poor standard of safety has often caused accidents.

Editor: Yan