Five dead and 86 missing as 'heartbreaking' fire breaks out on Philippines ferry

At slightest 5 radical person died and 86 are missing aft a occurrence broke retired connected a ferry successful the Philippines, the country's coastguard said. The MV June Aster, which set sail from Manila with 117 passengers and 17 crew members, was approaching Coron, a tourist hotspot in Palawan, when it caught fire. The blaze erupted at 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday and was still burning as of 11:00 on Thursday. Strong currents and poor wind conditions hampered firefighting efforts, according to the coastguard. A first responder told the BBC they had never witnessed such a disaster in Coron, describing it as "really heartbreaking". "I was 1 of the radical who carried and transported the casualties to the infirmary past night," the responder said, adding that the ferry was an hour away from its destination when the fire started. Video footage released by the coastguard on Wednesday night showed the vessel engulfed in flames with passengers being pulled from the water into rescue boats. "Reports from our vas bespeak beardown currents successful the area," a coastguard spokesperson told the BBC, noting that the ferry had drifted from its original distress position—4 nautical miles off Barangay Turda—to a point 7.68 nautical miles away. "It has been carried further retired by the current. These are the challenges our unit are facing successful the hunt area." The cause of the incident remains under investigation, and the coastguard has not yet interviewed any of the 43 people who were rescued. Survivors were taken to an evacuation centre in Barangay Turda, located just north of Marcilla; the extent of their injuries has not been disclosed. Anelyn Magbanua is among those anxiously awaiting news of her loved ones. Her husband, Marlon, had spent several days in Manila visiting their two children, who attend school in the capital city. Magbanua last heard from him while the ferry was passing a village roughly two hours from the Coron port. "I was expecting that the ferry volition get astatine the pier astatine betwixt 18:00 and 19:00 yesterday," she said, adding that she had gone to bed early but was awakened by a relative who informed her that the ferry Marlon was on had caught fire. "I couldn't picture what I americam feeling close now. I person been crying and praying since past night," Magbanua says. She travelled to a hospital in Coron hoping to find Marlon among the survivors, but he remains unaccounted for. "My two-year-old lad and I are extracurricular the infirmary arsenic we speak. We person thing but ourselves," she says.