Fire on Passenger Ferry Kills 28 in Philippines

At least 28 people have died, including a 6-month old baby, after a fire broke out on an inter-island passenger ferry in the southern Philippines, the coast guard said on Thursday.

Authorities have yet to identify the cause of the fire that started close to 11 pm (1500 GMT) on Wednesday off the island of Basilan, when many of the passengers were asleep in air-conditioned cabins on the ferry's lower deck.

"Initially there were 10 we recovered, they died of drowning. And then we discovered another 18 on board the vessel, at the cabin. They were totally burnt," Commodore Rejard Marfe, coast guard chief in the southern Mindanao region, told Reuters.