At least seven dead after blaze on Philippine passenger ferry
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MANILA • Seven people died after a high-speed Philippine ferry carrying 134 people caught fire yesterday, with seven passengers still missing, the coast guard said.
The MV Mercraft 2 caught fire just before reaching the port of Real in Quezon province, about 60km east of the capital Manila. It had left Polilio Island at 5am local time and made a distress call at 6.30am.
Five women and two men died, while 120 passengers were rescued, with 23 of them treated for injuries, the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement.
Pictures shared by the coast guard showed people in life vests floating at sea awaiting rescue, while some were taken to safety by a cargo ship in the area. Fire and thick smoke engulfed the two-storey passenger vessel.
"We heard an explosion," said 18-year-old Kycel Pineda, who was travelling on another ferry.
"When we saw the boat, it was already engulfed by fire and passengers were already floating in the sea," the high school student added.
Thick black smoke billowed from the Mercraft as flames tore through the entire vessel, photographs shared by the coast guard showed.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor record for maritime safety, with vessels often overcrowded and many of them ageing.
In 1987, around 5,000 people died in the world's worst peacetime shipping disaster when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island south of Manila.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
