Rescuers hunt for missing in Philippine ferry disaster

Philippine: Rescuers combed the waters off the Philippine capital on Christmas Day for at least 23 people missing after a ferry sank.

The Catalyn B, a flimsy, single-hulled wooden vessel taking Christmas holidaymakers to their home village on a small island, smashed into the side of a much larger fishing boat at the mouth of Manila Bay on Thursday, killing at least four people, the authorities said.

Officials are holding out hope that at least some of the other passengers and crew may have somehow survived and are afloat in tropical waters, in what is usually the calmest period of the year.

“Usually people can survive afloat for two to three days in Philippine waters,” Ensign Jhoe Barbasa, a coastguard spokeswoman here told AFP.

“But other factors also play a big role. Hunger, injuries or ailments, like hypertension, and the weather, can affect that window,” she added.

At daylight the coastguard despatched two patrol craft laden with divers and medical staff toward the mouth of the bay, while a surveillance plane was also put aloft to join the search, Barbasa said.

Forty-six survivors were fished out of the water on Thursday, along with four corpses.

However some survivors warned that some of the missing could have been trapped inside the vessel, which the coastguard said sank in 67 metres of water within minutes of impact shortly after midnight.

“We started listing within two minutes of the collision,” said 27-year-old Erwin Broncano.

“There was no warning. There was no order to abandon ship. I ran upstairs to rouse the other passengers there. I grabbed a life jacket and did not even have time to tie it properly before I jumped out,” he told local radio.

“The wind was up and there was a strong current, but the skies were clear,” said Broncano, whose two female cousins and a niece are among the missing.

The fishing boat has been impounded ahead of a planned disaster inquiry, Barbasa said. MANILA, Friday, AFP