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      26 Dead, 200 Missing After Philippine Ferry Collides with Cargo Ship

   by VOA News

   Divers are searching for more than 200 people missing in the central
   Philippines after a passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship Friday
   night and quickly sank off the coast of Cebu province.
   At least 26 people are known dead, with an unknown number believed to
   be trapped in the ferry more than 30 meters under water.
   Coast guard rescuers along with fisherman and people in other small
   boats were able to pull more than 600 people out of the water alive in
   the late night darkness.
   The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas was filled with 870 passengers and crew
   when it collided with the 11,000-ton freighter Sulpico Express 7 near
   Cebu City. The ferry sank within a half hour after the captain told
   those on board to abandon the vessel. Many people were able to strap on
   life jackets and jump into the dark sea.
   The passengers included scores of children and babies.
   Hundreds of people die each year in ferry accidents in the Philippines
   -- a 7,100-island archipelago with a notoriously poor record for
   maritime safety.
   In the world's worst peacetime sea disaster, 4,375 passengers and crew
   aboard the ferry Dona Paz died in December 1987, after the vessel
   collided with a freighter in the Sibuyan Sea. Twenty-six people
   survived.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/philippines-ferry/1731590.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/philippines-ferry/1731590.html