An earlier dying toll greater than doubled after the invention of 18 our bodies on the vessel, Basilan Governor Jim Salliman instructed AFP.
The our bodies had been discovered inside an air-conditioned cabin throughout an ongoing search of the ferry.
“Individuals panicked as a result of they had been asleep when the hearth occurred,” mentioned Commodore Rejard Marfe from the Philippine Coast Guard, citing witness accounts.
As the hearth unfold, the captain ran the vessel aground “so many extra may survive since it might be simpler to swim to shore”, Marfe instructed AFP.
Authorities mentioned earlier that 14 individuals had been injured and 7 had been lacking.
Salliman mentioned there could possibly be extra individuals lacking as a result of the variety of passengers on the vessel exceeded the 205 listed within the ship’s manifest.
“In all probability there are passengers who did not register within the manifest,” he mentioned.
It was not clear how the hearth began.
Survivors had been taken to Zamboanga and Basilan the place the injured obtained therapy for burns, Salliman mentioned.
Images launched by the coast guard confirmed certainly one of its vessels spraying water on the burning ferry as personnel in smaller boats plucked passengers from the darkish waters.
The Philippines, an archipelago of greater than 7,000 islands, is suffering from poor sea transport, with its badly regulated ferries vulnerable to overcrowding and accidents.
In Could, at the least seven individuals died after a hearth in a high-speed Philippine ferry carrying 134 individuals.
In 1987, round 5,000 individuals died on the planet’s worst peacetime delivery catastrophe, when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island south of the capital, Manila.
This text was initially printed by channelnewsasia.com. Learn the unique article right here.
Comments are closed.