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At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines.

The MV Thomas Aquinas was in collision with the cargo vessel on Friday evening near the central city of Cebu, officials said.

The ship was carrying 752 passengers and 118 crew, according to latest coast guard figures.

The incident took place around 1.2 miles from the shore.

The ferry was sailing into the port at Cebu – the country’s second biggest city – when it collided with the cargo ship travelling the other way at about 21:00 local time.

“The impact was very strong,” Rachel Capuno, a spokesperson for the owners of the ferry, told local radio.

Survivors said hundreds of passengers jumped into the ocean as the ferry began taking on water and listing. The crew distributed life jackets.

Many of the passengers were asleep and others struggled to find their way in the dark, reports said.

One survivor, Jerwin Agudong, said he and other passengers jumped overboard in front of the cargo vessel.

At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines

At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines

“It seems some people were not able to get out,” Jerwin Agudong told radio station DZBB.

“I pity the children. We saw dead bodies on the side, and some being rescued.”

The ferry sank within 30 minutes of the collision, the AFP news agency reports.

Rear Admiral Luis Tuason of the coast guard said navy divers recovered at least four more bodies from the wreck early on Saturday.

“There could be more bodies there but there were ropes inside that our divers could get entangled in,” he said.

The coast guard is to send more divers with deep-water equipment to help recover bodies, he added.

Another coast guard official told reporters that the cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, had 36 crew members on board, but it did not sink.

Passengers on the ferry had embarked at Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Sur.

The coastguard and some commercial vessels were able to pick up more than 600 survivors.

The 11,000 tonne ferry was 40 years old, and operated by a Chinese-owned company called 2Go.

The company became the largest ferry operator in the Philippines three years ago, following a merger of several smaller firms, our correspondent adds.

Joy Villages, an official at the coastguard’s public affairs office headquarters in Manila, told AFP it was too early to determine the cause of Friday’s collision.

She said the Thomas Aquinas was a “roll-on, roll-off” ferry that allows vehicles to be driven aboard and is commonly used in the Philippines.

Maritime accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical weather, badly maintained passenger boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

The world’s worst maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in the Philippines in December 1987. More than 4,000 people died when the Dona Paz ferry collided with a tanker.

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Astonishing pictures of a hulking freighter wearing mangled pieces of a steel bridge on its bow after a collision in southwestern Kentucky Thursday night emerged today.

The images show the 312-foot Delta Mariner idles, still partially in the bridge’s path, and clearly looks much too large to fit beneath the aging Eggner Ferry Bridge, which crosses the Kentucky Lake Reservoir.

The cargo vessel was carrying space rocket parts for the United Launch Alliance, intended for a vehicle that was scheduled to be shot into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Two sections of the bridge, which is the only route across the lake and the Tennessee River, collapsed after the crash.

Unbelievably no one was injured after the collision, though one driver described the harrowing experience of slamming on his breaks and stopping just a few feet short of oblivion after finding the bridge suddenly stopped.

Robert Parker, 51, of Cadiz, Kentucky, said he and his wife were traveling northbound on the highway after leaving his stepson’s house in Murray, Kentucky. They were driving in the rain along the darkened bridge around 8pm when they suddenly noticed a missing 20-foot piece of the bridge, which at that section stands at least 20 feet above the water.

“All of a sudden I see the road’s gone and I hit the brakes,” Robert Parker said. “It got close.”

Robert Parker said he stopped his pickup within five feet of the missing section. Two cars behind him stopped on his bumper and he saw another car on the other side of the missing section stopped.

State officials are inspecting what’s left of the bridge.

The cargo vessel was carrying space rocket parts for the United Launch Alliance, intended for a vehicle that was scheduled to be shot into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida

The cargo vessel was carrying space rocket parts for the United Launch Alliance, intended for a vehicle that was scheduled to be shot into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe says inspectors began the in-depth review of the Eggner Ferry Bridge at US Highway 68 and Kentucky Highway 80 at daylight Friday.

“At this point, we don’t believe there was any loss of life,” said Keith Todd, spokesman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Keith Todd said there also were no injuries on board the boat. He was unable to say where the ship was traveling when it struck the bridge.

Officials said the collapse meant vehicles needing to cross the Kentucky Lake reservoir and the Tennessee River had to be detoured for dozens of miles. The Coast Guard blocked access to boat traffic at the bridge site.

Robert Parker said he didn’t feel the vessel strike the bridge but “felt the bridge was kind of weak”. They had to detour about 50 miles to return home to Cadiz.

Officials say about 2,800 vehicles travel daily on the bridge, which was due to be replaced.