MANILA, Philippines, June 22 (UPI) -- Twenty-eight people, in addition to four found earlier, have been rescued in the wreck of a Philippine ferry that capsized in a typhoon, reports said.
The BBC cited a report on a local radio station that said the 28 newly rescued survivors had been floating for a day.
The death toll from the typhoon that ravaged the Philippines reached 229 with hundreds more missing after the ferry boat capsized, authorities said Sunday.
The Red Cross and disaster relief authorities announced the latest confirmed death toll Sunday night, Xinhua reported. Only four survivors from the capsized Princess of the Star were reported to have reached shore. The rest of the 749 passengers were "still unaccounted for," Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Armand Balilo told the state-run Chinese news agency.
Philippine rescuers were trying desperately to reach any passengers who may have reached an air bubble inside the vessel, CNN reported.
"It's a race against time," said Philippines Sen. Richard Gordon, who also is head of the country's Red Cross. "There is a bubble in the ship's bowels that is now on top of the surface of the water, and we are now trying to get assistance from our own government to get divers down into the vessel as soon as the seas calm."
The 23,000-ton Sulpicio Lines ship left Manila for Cebu Friday and ran into rough seas Saturday. The captain gave the order to abandon ship after its engine was seriously damaged, Xinhua reported.
Other than the ferry, most of those killed when the typhoon hit were drowned in floods measuring up to 6 feet deep in at least one province.
