Philippine Coast Guard personnel assist rescued passengers after a passenger vessel carrying more than 100 people caught fire near Real, Quezon province, May 23, 2022. Philippine Coast Guard/Handout via REUTERS
Seven people have died after a high-speed Philippine ferry carrying 134 people caught fire on Monday, with seven passengers still missing, the coast guard said.
The ship caught fire just before reaching the port of Real in Quezon province, about 60 km (37.28 miles) east of the capital Manila. It had left Polilio Island at 5:00 a.m. local time (2100 GMT Sunday) and made a distress call at 6:30 a.m.
Five women and two men had died, while 120 passengers had been rescued, with 23 of them treated for injuries, the coast guard said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear the cause of the fire, but the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor record for maritime safety, with vessels often overcrowded and many vessels ageing.
(This story corrects to five women and two men had died in paragraph 3, not five men and two women)
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