New Zealand's rescue coordination centre said Friday that two people were killed and 64 others were missing and presumed dead after the Princess Ishika ferry sank in waters off the Pacific island of Tonga, according to dpa. The ship went down around midnight Wednesday New Zealand time (around 1200 GMT). Two people were confirmed dead, one British man and one Polynesian woman. The centre told the German Press Agency dpa that "realistically we are looking for bodies at this stage, so our involvement will be starting to wind down." "New Zealand has sent a dive team to recover bodies, and we are shifting into that recovery phase of the operation," the spokesperson said. New Zealand sent a 12-person dive team and underwater search vessel to Tonga, the New Zealand government said in a press statement. That response followed a request from Tonga's prime minister Feleti Sevele. The rescue centre said 119 people were now believed to have been on board the ship, and that 64 remained unaccounted for. Tonga's police commander Chris Kelly, who is leading the country's response, told a press conference in Tonga Friday that there were 53 known survivors, all males. Kelly said he would not release an official list of survivors until they had properly determined the names, according to reports on Tonga's news website Matangi Tonga. "The operation will continue until we have accounted for and identified all on board," he said. The deceased 48-year-old British man has been identified in New Zealand and Tongan media reports as Dan MacMillan. He had lived in New Zealand for six years and had relatives in Scotland. The British man was one of six foreigners on the ship, including Japanese, German and French nationals. The editor of the Tongan newspaper Kele'a, Mateni Tapueluelu, told dpa that the boat sank rapidly, and dozens of foreigners, women and children had drowned. Tapueluelu said that maritime sources in Tonga told him a wave had hit the vessel and threw the seven vehicles held in cargo to one side of the boat, causing it to capsize. Water quickly poured through the low windows of the ferry and into the vessel, causing it to rapidly sink, according to his sources. The boat capsized around midnight local time, while most of the passengers were asleep according to one survivor. The vessel was bound from Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, to the small island of Ha'afeva. The centre said the ferry sank about 86 kilometers north-east of Nuku'alofa.
