29 Aug 2009

Tonga ferry missing now identified

11:01 am on 29 August 2009

Tongan police have released the names all but one of the 72 people presumed drowned in the Princess Ashika ferry disaster this month.

Most were Tongan, but foreigners among the dead include a Niuean with a New Zealand passport, two Germans, two French people and a Briton.

Assistant police commander Itu Tupouniua says the authorities believe a Hungarian man may also have perished on the boat, however survivors had not positively identified him from pictures and officers are still investigating.

Tonga's government has not yet decided whether to seek help from other countries to retrieve the bodies from the wreck, which lies at a depth of 110 metres.

The Princess Ashika sank on 5 August, about 90km northwest of the capital Nuku'alofa.

Fifty-four people survived the tragedy and two bodies have been recovered.