REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SIMALUNGUN -- The depth of Lake Toba is hindering rescue efforts to search for the victims of MV Sinar Bangun boat that sank in the area of Simalungun District on Monday. Depth of the water at the location where the MV Sinar Bangun ship sank is estimated to reach 460 meters, while the tools are only able to reach 350 meters.

"The ability of rescuers and their detection devices is limited," Head of the SAR office in Medan, North Sumatra, stated here on Thursday.

On the fourth day of the operation to search for the victims, the SAR team deployed a detector tool of the Navy that is able to reach a depth of up to 600 meters.

The low temperature of the water of Lake Toba also poses a constraint to divers, so the diving capability is limited to a depth of 50 meters.

Also read: Kayak team helps to find lost victims in Lake Toba

The SAR team has also made search efforts on the water surface by deploying 200 of the 366 personnel along with 10 inflatable boats and vessels of local participants as part of the rescue team.

The search target is directed to the Southern North East section of the lake based on the wind direction, with a radius of six to 10 kilometers from the coordinates of the location where the vessel sunk.

Based on data obtained from family reports at the disaster command post, the boat carried 206 passengers, of which 19 have been rescued, and three were found dead.

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