A ship with more than 727 passengers onboard sank in the waters off Indonesia's Central Java Province on Saturday, a rescue team said.

The ship with 25 crewmembers on board was reported to have sunk in the Suar mandalika waters some 30 miles of South Kalimantan at the wee hours on Saturday, according to a navy spokesman.

"The East Java naval base has sent a warship and a nomad aircraft to help rescue the victims," Antara news agency quoted spokesman of the Navy's Eastern Fleet Let. Col. Toni Syaiful as saying in Surabaya, capital of East Java province, on Saturday.

Toni said that the ship was expected to take about eight hours to arrive at the accident location.

Besides sending the warship which was skippered by Captain Maman, the Naval base also sent a Nomad P-819 aircraft to help conduct aerial observation.

However, he said that there was no report on the number of victims besides the crewmembers.

"We hope that we could save the crew and other passengers," he said, adding that the sinking ship was reported to have sailed from Teluk Kumai in South Kalimantan to Semarang in Java.

The Navy spokesman said that at present the weather and waves conditions at sea were not favorable for search and rescue efforts.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2006)