They had gambled with their lives to journey from as far as Iraq and Lebanon in search of a better life. But for 22 people the wager ended in death off the coast of Indonesia, after their vessel capsized, a government spokesman said Saturday.

Many children lay among the lifeless bodies authorities pulled from the seas of the coast off West Java.

But 28 others emerged alive from the waters and received treatment for minor injuries at a hospital in Cianjur, said Martinus Sitompol, an Indonesian government spokesman.

Rescuers continue to search for 30 more people believed to be on the boat, when it overturned. Their fate is yet uncertain. Many of them likely lie buried far beneath the waves.

Sitompol could only wager a guess why the boat capsized. He said some on the boat were from Iraq and Lebanon.

“It’s possible they ran out of fuel,” he surmised. “It’s possible that they didn’t know how to man or steer the boat.”

There are many ways for overfilled, unseaworthy crafts off the coast of Indonesia to spill the people they were carrying into the ocean. It happens many times a year.

The Australian media said the vessel was headed for Australia’s Christmas Island, a common landing point for such boats.

For some, Australia is the land of their hopes, but the government there has had its fill of capsizing, broken down refuge boats and enacted legislation this year to dash them. It is now forbidden for illegal immigrants arriving by boat to ever live on Australian soil.

A volcano in Indonesia prompted the evacuation of more than 6,000 people this weekend, blanketing buildings and cars in ashes, emergency officials said Monday.

Mount Sinabung erupted early Sunday. It is the highest mountain in North Sumatra with an altitude of about 2,600 meters (8,530 feet). North Sumatra is a province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Five people suffered breathing difficulties after inhaling volcanic ashes, and they were transported to a hospital in the North Sumatran city of Kabanjahe, said Jhonson Tarigan, a spokesman of the Sinabung Disaster Control Agency.

More than 6,200 evacuees sought shelter in eight locations, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s national disaster management agency.

Five men who have been clinging to the branches of a tree for four days as snarling tigers prowled beneath them might have to remain there until the middle of this week, rescuers said last night.

The Sumatran tigers killed a sixth member of the party and ate half of his remains before chasing his companions who clambered up the tree – hoping the tigers would not follow.

The tigers had hunted down the group after they unwittingly killed a tiger cub, which fell into a trap they had set to catch a deer for food.

Finding the cub dying from its injuries, the pack of tigers gave chase after the men and caught one, named only as David. He was quickly torn apart and half his body consumed.

The men, from Simpang Kiri village in Aceh, northern Sumatra, had gone into the dense forest in search of agar wood, which is very rare, expensive and used in the production of incense and aromatic oils.

Just 1lb of agar wood can fetch up to £175, resulting in villagers risking their lives to enter the jungles of the Gunung Leuser National Park where tigers and dangerous elephants roam.

‘We can’t go rushing in to rescue the men in the tree because of the remoteness and because of the tigers still being there at the base of the tree,’ said Police Chief Dicky Sondani.

Resident of Simpang Kiri village learned of the men’s fate because not only were they carrying mobile phones, they had also managed to get a signal, enabling them to call for help.

But as rescuers from the village neared the tree they saw David’s partially eaten remains and four large tigers – and fled.

That left the men in the tree stranded and by today they had managed to cling on in the branches for four days.

But police said they had little choice but to plan the rescue carefully and that would take some time. The tigers would have to be shot with anaesthetising darts due to their endangered numbers.

More than 100 Sumatran tigers are believed to roam the forests of the Gunung Leuser National Park.

But there are fears their numbers will dramatically drop as the rainforest shrinks and palm oil plantations take their place. Looking for food, tigers are more frequently entering villages and there have been a number of attacks on humans.