UPDATE, 10:30 p.m.: Sixty-six people are now feared to have drowned after the overloaded wooden boat carrying 97 illegal immigrants from Indonesia sank off Malaysia's western coast, Malaysian officials said.

(Reuters) - A boat carrying 97 people from Indonesia sank off the western coast of Malaysia and 61 of the passengers are still missing, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said on Wednesday.

The passengers included women and children and were suspected of trying to reach Malaysia illegally, a spokesman for the agency said. The agency had sent one boat to the area to search for survivors and was sending two more, the spokesman said.

Malaysia's New Straits Times said the boat sank around midnight on Tuesday about two miles (3 km) from the coastal town of Banting on the Strait of Malacca.