Passengers are rescued by Philippine Coast Guard rescuers and the crew of responding vessels. Photo / AP
Passengers are rescued by Philippine Coast Guard rescuers and the crew of responding vessels. Photo / AP
Fishing boats and passing ships rescued 245 people from a burning ferry overnight in southern Philippine waters, and the coast guard was still searching Wednesday though it wasn't clear if anyone was missing.
A 1-year-old girl and two other people died.
The ship's manifest had 36 crewmembers and 136 passengers, 28 of them children, and the coast guard said investigators would ask the ferry owner and skipper to explain the discrepancy between the 172 listed occupants and the number rescued.
Photos showed passengers wearing orange life vests waiting to be rescued at the loading bay of the ferry, which also carried some vehicles.
Rescued passengers of the ill-fated M/V Lite Ferry 16, are attended to. Photo / AP
Local news reports quoted some passengers as saying they jumped into the choppy waters in panic and were rescued by passing cargo and fishing vessels.
"We did not have any patrol ship in the area, so we alerted nearby ships and boats to render assistance because it was an emergency," coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said by phone.
"It's good that a number of ships immediately responded. We have to recognise what they did."
Orange flames and smoke consumed almost the entire vessel but the M/V Lite Ferry 16 stayed afloat, about 3km off a port in Dapitan city of Zamboanga del Norte province, where it was heading after departing Santander town in central Cebu province Tuesday.
Search and rescue efforts were continuing, Balilo said around midday.
The fire apparently started in the engine room of the M/V Lite Ferry 16. Photo / AP
It was unclear whether there were still people missing but no relatives have approached authorities to report any, and an ongoing search will continue, Balilo said.
A 1-year-old girl, a 60-year-old male passenger and a third person died, Balilo said.
He did not have more details on the identity of the third person and the causes of their deaths.
Meanwhile, in the northern Philippines, ferries were warned not to go to sea after a fast-moving storm blew across the main island of Luzon overnight.
Heavy rains fell in northern provinces, but no casualties or major damage was reported, and the storm has weakened into a tropical depression.
Rescued passengers of the ill-fated M/V Lite Ferry 16, are attended to by the coast guard rescuers and crew of responding vessels. Photo / AP
Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained boats, overcrowding and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
