Seventeen people were killed in a fire on a ferry carrying 350 passengers in the waters off Jakarta, Jakarta Disaster Management Agency said Thursday (Feb 22).

An official of the agency, Erwin Bahrudin, said a rescue team has found two other dead bodies Thursday afternoon.

"Two more dead bodies were found, putting the total deaths to 17," he told Xinhua.

Earlier, spokesman of the Indonesian Navy for western territory Leut. Colonel Hendra Pakan said that the rescue team had found 63 survivors and seven others dead on an island 25 miles (40 km) from the site of the accident.

The accident site was about 50 miles (80 km) off Jakarta port of Tanjung Periuk, the spokesman said.

He said the figure had made the total survivors to 325.

The rescue team has deployed five Navy war ships, two planes and two helicopters to search the rest of the passengers, he said.

The spokesman said that most of the people on board jumped to the sea after the fire engulfed the ferry.

"The condition was that the ship must be very hot. The people can not stand. We guest they jump to the water," he said.

Pakan said the ship was burned at 5:20 Jakarta time (1220 GMT) after sailing about 50 miles from Tanjung Periuk port in Jakarta heading to Bangka island off Sumatra island.

In late December, another ferry carrying around 600 passengers capsized off Java island and more than half of the passengers are believed to have died.

Ferry is a popular transport facility for connecting about 17,000 islands in Indonesia, for its cheap price.

But sometimes the standard of sailing safety was ignored.

Editor: Wing