17 Oct 2005

Search resumes for 5 missing at sea between Australia and PNG

11:16 am on 17 October 2005

Australian rescue authorities have resumed their search for five people who went missing while crossing a treacherous stretch of water in the Torres Strait.

The group, which includes two immigration officials and a four-year-old girl, were last heard from on Saturday morning when their six-metre aluminium vessel had engine trouble.

The news agency AAP reports that they had been between Saibai Island, which is just four kilometres from mainland Papua New Guinea, and Badu Island, in the Torres Strait.