At least 15 people have died and dozens more are missing after a ferry carrying over 350 people capsized in the southern Philippines.
At least 28 people remained missing on Monday afternoon as search and rescue teams scoured the area, with hundreds already rescued from the sinking vessel.
The ferry, MV Trisha Kerstin, was travelling to Jolo Island in Sulu province after leaving port from Zamboanga.
The vessel sent a distress signal a bit over four hours after it departed after developing technical problems and sank after midnight, coast guard officials said. The time of its capsizing was placed at around 1.50am local time on Monday morning.
A Philippine Coast Guard vessel, a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats were deployed to assist with the search and rescue operation.
Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed survivors floating with the help of life jackets and others being plucked from the water.
A Facebook live video also showed distressed passengers shouting for help in the dark.
Coast Guard Commander Romel Dua of Southern Mindanao district said the vessel was operating within its authorised passenger capacity of 352, with 332 passengers on board and 27 crew members at the time of the incident.
He said the efforts of search and rescue teams were helped by relatively calm waters.
“There was a coast guard safety officer on board and he was the first to call and alert us to deploy rescue vessels,” Mr Dua said, adding that the safety officer survived.
Mr Dua said an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the accident.
Rescue teams initially struggled with the sheer number of passengers and under-staffed hospitals were overwhelmed by the sudden surge of survivors, local media reported.
“We cannot say for now the reason of the sinking, but we were instructed to conduct a marine casualty investigation to determine the cause,” Dua said.
Mujiv Hataman, governor of the island province of Basilan, shared clips from the scene at Mindanao’s Isabela port on Facebook, showing survivors being ushered off boats, with some wrapped in thermal blankets and others being carried on stretchers.
“I’m receiving 37 people here in the pier. Unfortunately two are dead,” Mr Hataman said from the Isabela pier.
Mr Hataman said on DZBB radio that most survivors were doing well, but several elderly passengers needed emergency medical attention, adding that officials were still verifying the passenger manifest as rescue operations continued.
Ferry accidents are not uncommon in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands where boats are a primary mode of transport, particularly in remote and poorer regions.
Some of the country’s deadliest maritime disasters have involved ferries, including the 1987 Doña Paz sinking, which killed more than 4,300 people, making it one of the world’s worst peacetime sea disasters.
In 2023, more than 30 people were killed after a fire tore through a ferry in the southern Philippines.
