Sunday Times 2
Search suspended for 171 missing in Philippine ferry disaster
View(s):CEBU, Philippines, Aug 17 (AFP) -Stormy weather forced Philippine rescuers to suspend a search today 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 on 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 in their own small boats, frantically worked through the night and Saturday morning to haul 629 people out of the water alive. But when bad weather whipped up the ocean mid-afternoon today, authorities suspended the search with 171 people still unaccounted for.
“It rained hard… with strong winds and rough seas,” navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander 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.
Fabic said rescuers had not given up hope that there were other survivors who were still drifting at sea. But Rear Admiral Luis Tuason, vice commandant of the coastguard, said the death toll would almost certainly rise from the 31 bodies that had already been retrieved.
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