20 crew missing after ship runs aground in typhoon

A SEARCH was under way for 20 crew members missing in the Philippines after their cargo ship ran aground while seeking shelter from rough waters churned up by a typhoon, the coast guard said.

The crew abandoned the vessel laden with nickel ore on Monday after it hit the shore in Malimono town on the island of Mindanao.

Eighteen of them were still in a life raft when contact was lost yesterday, coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said.

The whereabouts of the other two were not known.

“Search and rescue teams are having a hard time due to strong waves,” said Balilo, adding that an aerial search was also being conducted.

“They reported to the (coast guard) station commander that two members of their crew were separated from them.”

Balilo said they had not received a report on the condition of the Philippine-registered Cebu Great Ocean, which was carrying 2,000 litres of diesel fuel.

At least two people have died in the central Philippines as Typhoon Surigae skirts the country, forcing nearly 160,000 people to seek emergency shelter from flooding and strong winds, a disaster agency said.

Surigae is not expected to make landfall, but is packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 175 kph near its centre, nearly 500km off the country’s east coast.

Thousands of people and hundreds of vessels were stranded at seaports, authorities said, as the typhoon moved slowly in a northwesterly direction off the main island of Luzon.