A ferry carrying more than 100 people between the port of Muara Angke in Jakarta and a resort island caught fire on Sunday, 1 January, leaving at least 23 people dead.

An Indonesian official confirmed the deaths. "23 people died. Three of the victims have been taken to the Hospital of Atma Jaya, the other 20 are still on the way to hospital," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesperson for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, in a statement to local media Kompas.com.

The fire gutted the ship, known as the Zahro Express, and reduced most of it to ash. A police spokesman told another local media outlet that the fire was sparked by an electrical short circuit.

About 17 passengers are still listed as missing. Conflicting reports peg the number of survivors between 153 and 194, indicating that the ship may have been carrying more than the 100 people reported on its manifest.

The ferry was headed to the island of Tidung, which is part of a chain of islands off the coast of Indonesia's capital city. Many of the passengers were tourists looking to spend the beginning of 2017 on the resort island.

Indonesia is largely made up of a series of archipelagic islands.