Rescuers search Manila Bay for survivors

Manila: Search-and-rescue teams are scouring the waters of Manila Bay for at least 27 people missing after a passenger ferry collided with a fishing boat.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilot said Thursday at least 46 people have been plucked alive from the water.

The wooden-hulled ferry was carrying 73 people on a journey from Manila to southwest Mindoro Island, but it was not clear how many were in the fishing boat which sank shortly after the accident, Balilo said.

The cause of the collision at a time when millions of Filipinos were heading to their home provinces for Christmas was not clear. No weather disturbances were reported in the area.