No sign of life in RP ferry wreck

No sign of life in RP ferry wreck

PHILIPPINES: Divers probed deeper into the smoldering wreck of a Philippine ferry on Monday but found no sign of more than 100 people still missing after the ship caught fire while leaving Manila late last week.

Nearly 900 passengers and crew had just set sail for the central city of Bacolod when flames swept through the ship after what some survivors said was an explosion.

While the cause of the fire remains a mystery, the government is playing down theories of a terror attack after the Abu Sayyaf group of rebels was reported to have claimed responsibility.

One person was confirmed dead after the disaster on the 155- meter Super Ferry 14 in the early hours of Friday.

"We have not detected any signs of life," Wilfredo Tamayo, the coast guard official supervising search-and-rescue efforts, told Reuters.

"But we don't want to lose hope. We are concentrating our operations still on the primary objective of locating possible survivors and any human bodies." --Reuters