One person has died and 102 others have been rescued from an Indonesian passenger ferry that ran into trouble in the Java Sea, an official said, according to the BBC.

A search and rescue operation was launched after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8, which was carrying 243 people, after it encountered severe weather, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said. The search for the remaining passengers was continuing.

The ferry had been travelling from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, in South Kalimantan, and was last reported around 150 kilometres south of Banjarmasin at about 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday.

Search and rescue ships and a helicopter have been deployed to the area, and other vessels nearby have been alerted to watch for signs of passengers.

The incident follows a separate ferry fire off Madura Island in Indonesia last month that killed five people. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries for transport.