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SYDNEY: An urgent search and rescue mission was under way Monday for about two dozen people missing after their boat sank in open seas far off Australia.

A merchant ship that responded to a distress call managed to pluck 17 survivors from the Indian Ocean late Sunday and was searching for others, Australia's Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said.

About 40 people were believed to be aboard the boat when went down near the Cocos Islands, sparsely-populated atolls about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) northwest of the Australian coast and about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of Indonesia.

O'Connor said it was too early to say whether those on board were asylum seekers trying to reach Australia, though aspects of the emergency such as an unseaworthy boat carrying so many people in waters sometimes used by human traffickers signaled that may be the case.

Many of them pay thousands of dollars to people smugglers who put them to sea in leaky boats from Indonesia and sail south. Most end up caught by customs authorities and detained in an immigration camp on remote Christmas Islands while their refugees applications are assessed, a process that can take months or years.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority received distress signals on Sunday from the boat, and the authority asked any vessels in the area to respond.

The merchant ship LNG Pioneer arrived in the area late Sunday and deployed life rafts and began plucking people from the water, authority spokeswoman Rhianne Robson said.

An Australian military plane was on its way to the area to search for more survivors.