Stormy weather on Saturday forced Philippine rescuers to suspend a search for 171 people missing after a crowded ferry collided with a cargo ship and quickly sank, with 31 others confirmed dead.
The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 831 passengers and crew when the vessels smashed into each other late Friday night in a dangerous choke point near the port of Cebu, the Philippines’ second-biggest city, authorities said.Coastguard and military vessels, as well as local fishermen, frantically worked through the Friday night and Satudat morning to haul 629 people out of the water alive. But when bad weather whipped up the ocean mid-afternoon on Saturday, authorities suspended the search with 171 people still unaccounted for.
“It rained hard... With strong winds and rough seas,” Navy spokesman lieutenant Comm-ander Gregory Fabic told AFP. He also said powerful currents had earlier prevented divers from assessing all of the sunken ferry to determine how many people had died and were trapped inside.