Search goes on for hundreds missing in Philippines typhoon

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-23  |     ONLINE EDITION

RESCUERS searched today for survivors of Typhoon Fengshen after it cut a violent path through the Philippines and left many hundreds dead or missing in flood-swollen villages and a capsized ferry.

The death toll from the typhoon was put at more than 130 late yesterday, but most of the 747 passengers and crew of a ferry that ran aground then tipped over in stormy seas were still unaccounted for.

Only 10 wave-battered survivors were known to have made it to land after the ship was struck by the typhoon Saturday. Several bodies, including a man and woman who had bound themselves together, drifted ashore on a high tide awash with children's slippers and life jackets.

The 23,824-ton Princess of Stars was traveling from Manila to Cebu on when it ran aground a few miles (kilometers) off central Sibuyan island then capsized, said Mayor Nanette Tansingco of Sibuyan's San Fernando.

Coast guard frogmen who managed to get to the stricken ship got no response when they rapped on the hull with metal instruments late Sunday, then had to give up for the night due to strong waves. They hoped to get inside today, possibly with US assistance requested by the Philippine Red Cross.

After the storm stymied earlier attempts to reach the ship and kept aircraft at bay, a rescue vessel battled huge waves and strong winds to approach Sunday, more than 24 hours after the ferry lost radio contact.

"They're scouring the area. They're studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted," coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Arman Balilo said.

Officials were checking reports that a large number of survivors might have reached one nearby island, coast guard spokesman Cmdr. Antonio Cuasito said.