Fears for 200 after Philippine ferry collides with cargo ship Passengers of capsized ferry recount ordeal during ship collision that killed at least 17 people in central Philippines. Deborah Lutterbeck reports RESCUERS are searching for more than 200 people missing after a ferry sank in the central Philippines, killing at least 24 people, the coast guard said. The MV St Thomas Aquinas was carrying 814 people when it collided with a cargo ship off the port of Talisay City in Cebu province, 580 kilometres south of Manila, on Friday evening. Emergency workers rescued 629 survivors from the sea overnight, said coast guard vice commandant Rear Admiral Luis Tuason Jr. He said divers and helicopters were dispatched to help in the search for 217 missing, including 58 infants that remained unaccounted for. A survivor is helped as she arrives at hospital after a ferry collided with a cargo ship off Cebu in the central Philippines. "We fear that some people have been trapped inside the ferry," he said. Tuason said the ferry sank within about 10 minutes after the collision. "The vessel suffered a huge hole on its right side in the rear and as soon as the two ships separated, it took on water fast," he said. Hundreds of passengers were rescued from the Philippines ferry crash, including three-month-old Trisia Mae Kumaro being held by a medic and her mother (back). The 2Go Group, which owns the sunken vessel, said the crew distributed life jackets to the passengers and carried out emergency procedures to abandon the ship. "At the same time, the ship's officers sent a distress signal to the nearest Philippine Coast Guard station to alert them for immediate rescue operations," it said in a statement. The company said the St Thomas had an authorized capacity of 1,010 passengers. A body lies in a morgue at the hospital at a hospital in Cebu after a ferry collided with a cargo ship in Cebu, central Philippines. Sea travel is a key mode of transportation in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. Accidents are common because of poor safety standards and overloading. The country was the site of the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster when a ferry collided with an oil tanker days before Christmas in 1987, killing more than 4300 people.