REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- An ongoing search for seven missing Japanese tourists in Bali's Nusa Lembongan waters was hampered by strong sea currents on Saturday.

"The sea currents around the Nusa Lembongan waters were quite strong," the chief of the local SAR agency's operations section, Wayan Suyatna, said.

On the first day of the search on Saturday, the SAR team carried out seaborne and airborne operations to look for the missing tourists, he said.

"The search on the first day did not yield any results," he said.

Two boats with 35 personnel on board were mobilized to comb the Nusa Lembongan waters but found no one, he said.

The SAR team also used a BO 105 helicopter in the search operations.

He said the weather around the Nusa Lembongan waters was cloudy, with the wind speed reaching around 10 knots even as the search continued.

The spokesman of the local SAR agency, Gede Darmada, said earlier in the day that the Japanese tourists, all of them women, began diving in the Nusa Lembongan waters on Friday at about 01.30 p.m. local time.

By 02.00 p.m, none of them was to be seen, he said.

The tourist agent, who brought the tourists to the diving site, combed the location but found no one.

Unable to find the divers, the operator reported the incident to the local SAR team at 07:00 pm.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika