At least 18 people have been confirmed dead after a passenger and cargo ferry carrying more than 350 passengers and crew sank in waters off the southern coast of the Philippines, triggering a major search and rescue operation.
According to the Philippine Coast Guard, 317 people aboard the MV Trisha Kerstin 3 have been rescued, while at least 24 others remain missing as of Monday.
The vessel was travelling from the southern island of Mindanao to Jolo Island when it sent out a distress call at about 1:50am local time on Monday (17:50 GMT Sunday), shortly before it went down.
Authorities said investigations are underway to determine the cause of the sinking. The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, has a long record of maritime accidents involving inter-island ferries.
“Based on the account of some survivors, the waters in the area were rough at the time,” Philippine Coast Guard spokeswoman Noemie Cayabyab said in a televised interview, according to AFP.
Footage released by the disaster management office in Bongao Municipality showed passengers wearing life vests floating in the sea as they waited to be rescued. Another video shared on Facebook by Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman showed survivors wrapped in blankets as they disembarked from rescue boats.
Emergency responders said they were struggling to cope with the scale of the incident. Basilan emergency responder Ronalyn Perez told AFP that medical facilities and personnel were stretched by the number of survivors.
“The challenge really is the number of patients that are coming in. We are short-staffed at the moment,” Perez said.
Another rescuer said authorities had received more than 100 calls from anxious family members seeking information on their loved ones.
Maritime safety experts say poor vessel maintenance and overloading have contributed to previous ferry disasters in the Philippines, although ferries remain a popular mode of transport due to their affordability.
In May 2023, at least 28 people died after a passenger ferry caught fire, including three children, one of them a six-month-old baby. A year earlier, seven people were killed when a fire broke out on a high-speed ferry carrying 134 passengers.
BBC
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