SURABAYA — Survivors said today they heard multiple blasts moments before an Indonesian passenger ferry caught fire, killing five passengers and prompting many to jump into the sea, with some still missing more than 24 hours later.

There were 236 people on board the vessel when it left Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, for Makassar on Sulawesi island on Sunday morning, search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit said.

“Mathematically, only two that have yet to be evacuated. We are confirming this data with the shipowner,” he said.

Numbers provided by officials have fluctuated wildly. The last toll given yesterday was 41 people missing and five dead from a total manifest of 271 people.

Arman Asmara Syarifuddin, an East Java police official, told Kompas TV on Monday some 28 people were still missing.

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

The fire broke out on Sunday morning as passengers were eating breakfast, survivor Muhammad Abdul Karim told reporters in Surabaya after disembarking from a rescue vessel.

“Initially, the smoke entered the information room, the sleeping quarters. And then explosions happened,” he said.

The blaze originated in the stern, sending passengers fleeing to the bow where they were all given life jackets, Muhammad said.

He said he jumped overboard with an elderly man as the fire came closer, and saw flames engulfing “almost all” of the ferry as he looked back.

“The waves were big and the ship coming to save us was quite far. Those were our fears when we were about to jump,” said Muhammad — who was rescued drifting at sea in his life jacket about seven hours later.

He said he had not seen any lifeboats aboard the ferry.