Divers find 'many' bodies in capsized Philippine ferry

Updated June 25, 2008 02:42:27

A capsized ferry in the central Philippines towers over a boat carrying navy and air force divers. [AFP]

Navy and air force divers have entered a capsized ferry in the central Philippines.

Our reporter in Manila, Shirley Escalante, says officials will not say how many bodies have been found, although it is believed to be "many".

Officials say 76 survivors have been found since the MV Princess of the Stars, with 862 people aboard, capsized three days ago, off the coast of Sibuyan island, as a tyhoon lashed the region.

Nearly 30 bodies from the vessel have washed ashore.

Navy spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Edgardo Arevalo, says "there are many bodies trapped inside" the vessel but divers have reported that it is too dark to be able to give more detail about the dead.

"It was too dark inside to tell how many were children or elderly, but they did say they were mostly floating and they were apparently trapped inside," he said.

Lieutenant Arevalo says the waters are still quite rough, making it difficult to enter and exit the sunken vessel.

"What complicates our problem is how to extricate the bodies. One of the ways they are thinking about is to weigh them down so they can take them out from the bottom of the ship. Another option is to cut the hull," he said.

He has refused to speculate on how many bodies might be inside the vessel but recalls survivors' accounts that the vessel sank so swiftly that many people were unable to escape.

Coast guard divers had been waiting for the seas to calm down before entering the hull of the 23,000-tonne ferry, which sank when seeking shelter as Typhoon Fengshan tore through the central Philippines on Saturday.