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Philippines: Fatal fire on ferry
Photo: PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD/HANDOUT/EPA
Seven people died in a ferry fire in the Philippines.
According to the Coast Guard on Monday, there were 126 passengers and eight crew members on the ship.
The Coast Guard was able to save 127 people, 24 of whom were injured and taken to the hospital.
Nobody will be missed anymore.
According to the information, the ferry was traveling from the island of Polillo to the main island of Luzon.
At the time of the accident, the "Mercraft 2" was less than a kilometer from its destination port of Real in the province of Quezon, almost 70 kilometers west of Manila, it said.
The fire probably started in the engine room.
Wrapped in flames and smoke
In Coast Guard photos, the entire ship was engulfed in flames and smoke.
Some passengers escaped by jumping overboard, eyewitness photos showed.
People floated in the water with life preservers and life jackets.
Many of them could be rescued from the water by other ferries.
The ferry was towed to shore.
The seven fatalities drowned, said Real City Disaster Management Officer Ricky Poblete.
Traveling on the water is part of everyday life on the archipelago of the Philippines.
Accidents happen again and again due to insufficient safety standards and overcrowding.
The worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred in Philippine waters in 1987 when a ferry collided with a tanker.
More than 4000 people lost their lives at that time.
wit/dpa/AFP