TAWAU: A passenger ferry caught fire yesterday while it was undergoing repairs at a dockyard in Tanjung Batu Laut.
The fire spreading from the crew cabin to the passenger cabin of the ferry.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire started when welding was carried out on board Indomaya Tiga at about 3.20pm.
A fire engine arrived on the scene soon after to put out the fire but the crew and passenger cabins of the Indonesia-registered ferry were destroyed by then.
It is said that the repair works on the vessel that plied between Tawau and Tarakan, Indonesia were almost completed when the fire broke out.
The ferry is said to be built in 2002 with a seating capacity of 146.