At least 26 people have died and 40 have been rescued after a ferry capsized in the Philippines, officials have said, as the tail end of Typhoon Doksuri battered parts of the country.
Officials said it remained unclear how many people were aboard the M/B Princess Aya, which capsized on Thursday in Laguna de Bay in Rizal province, east of Manila.
The boat overturned just 46 metres from shore, after leaving a wharf in the town of Binangonan for nearby Talim island, police and the coast guard told reporters at a news conference. They said the boat tilted and its outrigger broke when people rushed to one side of the wooden vessel amid high winds. It then capsized.
Police in Rizal said that they immediately launched a rescue operation with the help of the coast guard and other local authorities, but that at least 26 people drowned. Forty others were saved.
Coast guard and police said search and rescue efforts had resumed on Friday after a pause on Thursday night.
“This is really a tragic event that has to be investigated,” coast guard Rear Adm. Hostillo Arturo Cornelio told reporters.
The ferry was supposed to carry a maximum of 42 passengers and crewmembers but was overloaded, Cornelio said. He said investigators would also look into reports that the passengers were not wearing life vests as required by safety regulations.
Asked how many people were on the boat, Cornelio said it was unclear if there were more than the 66 who died or were saved. “We assume there could be more,” he said.
A video released by the coast guard showed rescuers on a local government boat pulling a body out of the lake. Another video showed local fishers aboard vessels approaching the overturned boat.
Typhoon Doksuri blew away on Thursday after battering the northern Philippines and whipping up seasonal monsoon rains in a large swath of the archipelago.
The typhoon has so far toppled trees and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes in southern Taiwan, prompting authorities to shut business for a second day and warn of extreme winds as the storm makes its final push to southeastern China on Friday with maximum winds of 191 kmh (118 mph).
The sinking on Thursday brought the death toll from a week of stormy weather across the main island of Luzon to more than 30. At least nine people were reported killed earlier due to Doksuri’s onslaught, mostly due to landslides, flooding and toppled trees and thousands were displaced, disaster response officials said.
Sea travel was suspended in many ports during Doksuri’s onslaught from Tuesday to Wednesday, stranding thousands of passengers and cargo trucks. The no-sail orders were gradually lifted Thursday as weather improved in many areas.
Coast guard Rear Adm. Armand Balilo said the boat that capsized had set out after a no-sail order was lifted for Binangonan town.
With Associated Press and Reuters
