1 dead, 23 missing after ferry sinks off Tonga

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (AP) - Ships and planes searched South Pacific waters near Tonga for 23 people missing Thursday after a ferry flipped over and sank in heavy seas during the night, killing at least one person.

Officials said 55 survivors had been plucked from the ocean by rescuers after the Princess Ashika overturned around midnight Wednesday about 55 miles (85 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Nuku'alofa.

The body of a Caucasian man was also pulled from the sea, police assistant commander Tupou Niua told The Associated Press. She had no information on reports that two other Caucasians and one Japanese were also aboard the ferry when it sank.

Survivor Siaosi Lavaka told the Matangi Tonga news Web site that the survivors he saw packed aboard life boats were all men.

"No women or children made it," Lavaka was quoted telling the Web site after being returned to shore along with about 50 other male survivors.

Lavaka, whose mother was among the missing, said women and children aboard the ferry were sleeping in a separate area from the men and may have been caught inside when it went down.

"We are deeply concerned about those still missing," Murray McCully, the foreign minister of nearby New Zealand, said in a statement.

Lavaka said he woke to find the ferry rocking violently and waves breaking over the lower deck.

The rocking apparently moved cargo to one side of the vessel, unbalancing the ferry and turning it over, he said.

"We woke up to the sound of shouting and we jumped off," he told Matangi Tonga.

The ferry sank fast, "but we don't know why," said Neville Blackmore, spokesman at the Rescue Coordination Center in New Zealand, which is responsible for search and rescue activities in the Tonga region.

Blackmore said the ferry was carrying 49 passengers and 30 crew members when it went down, revising an earlier passenger count of 75.

He told New Zealand's National Radio that 42 people rescued from life rafts and another 14 - including the dead body - had been pulled from the ocean by three vessels searching for survivors.

"We understand there were only eight life rafts ... so we are looking for people in the water," he said.

Two P3 Orion maritime search airplanes from New Zealand along with the three boats were taking part in the operation, which was concentrated around a trail of floating debris stretching for 10 miles (15 kilometers).

Conditions for searching were good, with water temperatures a relatively warm 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius), giving those not injured a good chance of surviving for some time, Blackmore said.

Shipping Corporation of Polynesia spokesman Nikola Tau said the ferry sank as it sailed from the capital, Nuku'alofa to the Nomuka Islands group north of the main island of Tongatapu.

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Associated Press writer Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.