Rescuers on Thursday were searching for 43 people missing in rough seas overnight after a ferry carrying 65 people sank near Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java's Ketapang port late Wednesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement. It was bound for Bali's Gilimanuk port, a 50-kilometre trip.

The ferry carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks, it said. Two deceased have been recovered and 20 were rescued, many of them unconscious after drifting in choppy waters for hours, said Banyuwangi police chief Rama Samtama Putra.