How many people died when the Philippine ferry capsized?

65438+February 2 1 day, a ferry capsized off Quezon province in the northern Philippines. The Philippine Coast Guard announced on the 22nd that 252 people have been killed and 5 people have died. Because the actual number of passengers on board does not match the list, the exact number of missing persons is still difficult to determine.

Sink in the wind and waves

The ferry named "Mercraft 3" set sail from Ungos Pier in Real Town, Quezon Province at about 1 1:00 on the morning of February/October, and crossed the Strait to Polillo Island. Polillo is a remote island, and it takes two and a half hours to cross the channel by ferry.

"About 1 hour after we left the port, big waves began to attack the ferry," a survivor named Donner Jed mendiola told local radio station DZMM.

Mendiola said that the bad weather once delayed the ferry, but after the weather improved, the ferry set off for Polillo Island. I didn't expect to encounter strong winds and waves soon. The 206-ton ferry finally capsized under the impact of wind and waves.

"The boat stopped, one side of the boat began to flood, and the passengers rushed to the other side of the boat, so the boat began to sink," mendiola recalled, and the passengers put on life jackets as instructed.

"When the boat started to sink, everyone else was waiting at the bow," Rene Ebuenga, another survivor, recalled to Reuters. "But I didn't do it, because I knew the ship would break down and I wanted to avoid getting hurt. This is very dangerous, and the big waves will throw debris on you. "

Before the incident, the southern Philippines was hit by a typhoon. The government advises people who go home for Christmas to make arrangements as early as possible to avoid bad weather. However, no storm warning was issued in the area where the ferry was located.

The number of missing persons is difficult to determine.

After the incident, the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy immediately organized rescue, and many local fishermen spontaneously went to the rescue, but the bad weather made the rescue very difficult.

"The waves are still very big and the rescue conditions are very difficult." Froilan Roy Firme Rojano of the Polillo Police Department said. After the night of 2 1, the rescue operation was once stopped because of the bad weather. But the rescue department managed to save most people. Barriro, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said that most of the passengers were drifting at sea when they were rescued.

After the February 2 1 65438 incident, the Coast Guard initially reported that the ferry only carried 25/Kloc-0 passengers and crew. Rappler, a Philippine media, believes that the official did not explain the discrepancy in figures, but admitted that the ferry actually carried more passengers than 25 1 listed on the list. Earlier, the Coast Guard said that the ferry could carry 286 people, so it was not overloaded when it capsized.

According to media reports, there are still seven passengers missing, but it seems that the specific number of missing persons cannot be determined yet. A rescue official named Efren Ritual admitted to AFP that it was impossible to determine how many people were missing. "The rescue will continue because there are still people here looking for missing relatives."

Juanito Diaz, head of Quezon's disaster response agency, said that many rescued passengers had been sent to the government emergency center in nearby Dinahikan village, and the government provided them with clothes, food, water and medicine.

During the typhoon season, ferry capsized from time to time in the Philippines. In June 2008, the ferry Princess Star with 850 people on board set off in a typhoon storm and unfortunately capsized near Sibuyan Island in the Philippines, killing at least 800 people. 1987, the Philippine Donapaz hit an oil tanker and sank in 1987, killing more than 4,300 people, which was the worst shipwreck in the global peacetime.