Manila: A ferry stuck fireplace off a port close to the Philippine capital Manila on Friday, leaving 9 other people lacking and one injured, the coast guard mentioned.

Emergency products and services rescued 73 of the 82 individuals who were on board the MV Asia Philippines because it burned close to the port of Batangas, a coast guard remark mentioned.

They integrated a middle-aged girl who used to be taken to health center with an unspecified damage, the remark mentioned, including 9 folks had been nonetheless lacking.

Two coast guard seek and rescue vessels had been nonetheless on the lookout for the lacking and seeking to put out the blaze as of early night time, hours after the ferry stuck fireplace about one nautical mile (1.85 kilometres) from shore.

The reason for the fireplace used to be now not in an instant recognized.

The send had sailed from the port of Calapan on close by Mindoro island in mid-afternoon with 48 passengers, 34 workforce individuals and 16 motor automobiles on board, the coast guard mentioned.

The vessel is accepted to hold 402 passengers, it added.

The Philippines, an archipelago of greater than 7,000 islands, is plagued by way of deficient sea delivery, with its badly regulated boats at risk of overcrowding and injuries.

A minimum of one individual used to be killed after a hearth engulfed a Philippine ferry off the central island of Bohol in June.

In Would possibly, seven other people had been killed when a hearth ripped thru a ferry sporting 134 passengers and workforce off the port of Actual, east of Manila.