Indonesian authorities have extended rescue efforts to locate dozens of passengers still missing after a ferry sank in the Java Sea last week. The passenger vessel Virgo Transport 8 was carrying 243 people, including 213 passengers and 30 crew members, when it lost contact with its operator shortly after departing Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, en route to Banjarmasin on the island of Borneo.

Rescue teams recovered three bodies from the sunken ferry on Friday, raising the confirmed death toll to nine, according to the national search and rescue agency Basarnas. Despite ongoing operations, 126 individuals remain unaccounted for.

Basarnas operations director Yudhi Bramantyo said authorities have opted to continue the search while evaluating options to right the vessel. It is believed some victims may still be trapped inside the submerged ferry. Divers are being deployed to conduct underwater searches of the wreckage in an effort to locate survivors or recover additional bodies.

The incident has prompted a large-scale response involving multiple agencies, as officials work against challenging conditions in the Java Sea. No further details on the cause of the sinking have been released, and investigations are expected to continue as the search operation proceeds.