Ten people were killed in a fire that broke out on a merchant ship off the province of Basilan, in the southern Philippines.

The Philippine News Agency quoted the Philippine Coast Guard as saying that the fire broke out last night in a ship carrying more than 200 people, including crew members, killing ten people.

The Coast Guard also indicated that the ship was on its way from the city of Jolo in the Sulu province to the city of Zamboanga in the Zamboanga del Sur province when it caught fire off the waters of Baluk-baluk Island.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor record for maritime safety, with vessels often overcrowded and many ageing ships still in use.

In 1987, about 5,000 people died in the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster, when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island south of the capital, Manila. (QNA)

Source: Qatar News Agency