Philippines ferry capsize kills at least 35, Canadian rescued

A ferry carrying 189 people, including at least one Canadian, capsized Thursday minutes after it left a central Philippine port in choppy waters, leaving at least 36 dead and 26 others missing, coast guard officials said.

They said the Canadian was among at least 127 people from the M/B Kim Nirvana who were rescued by nearby fishing boats and coast guard personnel or swam to safety off Ormoc city on Leyte Island.

The name and hometown of the Canadian were not immediately available.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the wooden outrigger ferry was leaving Ormoc for the Camotes Islands, about 44 kilometres to the south, when it was lashed by strong waves.

He said the captain and some of the crew were rescued and are in custody pending an investigation.

Coast guard officials and survivors said it wasn't immediately clear what caused the 36-ton ferry, which was carrying a heavy cargo of construction materials and bags of rice, to overturn.

Survivors told The Associated Press by cellphone that the bow suddenly rose from the water before the vessel flipped over on one side, turning it upside down and trapping passengers underneath.

Among the passengers who survived were at least three Americans and a Canadian.

Lawrence Drake, 48, a retired firefighter from Rochester, N.Y., said he was able to revive a woman who wasn't breathing while they were in the water via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Drake said he also saved the woman's pregnant daughter and an 8-year-old boy. He said he saw at least seven bodies floating in the water, including two children.

Many of the passengers were screaming in panic, he said.

Drake's Filipino wife, Mary Jane, said the ferry was pulling slowly out of the port when it suddenly flipped to the left in strong waves.

"No one was able to jump out because it overturned very swiftly. There was no time to jump," she said.

TV footage showed coast guard rescuers and army soldiers carrying survivors from rubber boats to a beach. Not far away, the bottom part of the vessel could be seen protruding from the water.

A rescue leader, Ciriaco Tolibao, said army frogmen and coast guard divers were searching the overturned boat to find more survivors or retrieve bodies. The search was continuing into the night, Balilo said.

Cloudy weather at the time of the accident did not pose any danger that would have prompted the coast guard to stop sea voyages, officials said.