Philippine navy divers retrieved bodies Monday from inside a ferry that sank last week after colliding with a cargo ship.
The discovery of more
victims' remains brought the number of people confirmed dead from the
disaster in the southern Philippines to 52, the Philippine Coast Guard
said. Another 68 people remain missing and 750 have been rescued, it
said.
The divers found the body
of a child Monday near the hull of MV St. Thomas Aquinas, the sunken
ferry, the official Philippines News Agency reported.
They then managed to
enter compartments of the vessel and recover more bodies, the agency
said, citing Lt. Cmdr. Gregory Fabic, a navy spokesman.
Another team of divers is expected to arrive later in the day to help with the search and rescue efforts, Fabic said.
The collision occurred
around 9 p.m. Friday in the Mactan Channel about 2 miles northwest of
Cebu City, the capital of Cebu province.
Echoes of a past disaster
The St. Thomas Aquinas
was coming from nearby Butuan City when the collision occurred. The
cargo ship, the Sulpicio, which had about 20 people aboard, was leaving
Cebu for Davao, a region on the island of Mindanao.
The passenger ferry sank, but not before sending out a distress call heard by Coast Guard officials.
The cargo vessel involved in the crash -- along with navy, Coast Guard and commercial vessels -- helped in the rescue efforts.
Photos from the scene showed a huge hole torn in the yellow bow of the Sulpicio.
The sinking recalls one
of the worst maritime disasters in world history that took place on
December 20, 1987, also off the Philippines.
Between 1,700 and more
than 4,000 people were killed when the ferry Dona Paz collided with an
oil tanker in the Tablas Strait. Reports of the total number of
casualties have varied; many claim the Dona Paz was extremely
overcrowded.
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