BANDA ACEH, (Indonesia): Rescuers are searching for seven people, including four Australian tourists, who went missing when their boat hit bad weather off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, officials said Monday.

Two boats carrying a total of 17 people left Nias island headed for the private island of Pinang on Sunday, local search and rescue agency head Octavianto said, before bad weather hit.

One of the speedboats, with 10 people on board, took shelter on another nearby island but the other boat carried on.

Rescuers were told by resort management on Pinang early on Monday that the second boat, which carried the four Australians and three Indonesians, never arrived, said Octavianto who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

He told AFP a search was launched immediately.

“From morning until now, we have yet to find the speedboat which carried the seven people,” Octavianto told AFP.