Nine people were missing today after a ferry caught fire - with passengers having to leap into the sea to escape the blaze.

The vessel carrying 48 passengers and 34 crew on the ferry - a total of 82 people - caught fire off the coast of Batangas province in the south of Luzon island shortly before sunset on Friday August 26.

Officials said that 73 of those onboard had been rescued. A 44-year-old woman was taken to hospital with injuries.

Search teams are still looking for nine missing people from the ship, which was travelling between islands in the tropical archipelago.

The Starlite Ferries vessel had reportedly travelled from Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro and was docking at the Batangas port in Batangas when it caught fire.

Passenger Benedict Fernandez told local radio that smoke and flames suddenly rose from the second deck as crew members were trying to turn an engine on and off as the ferry approached the port. He said that when it became hard to see because of the smoke, he instinctively jumped into the water with his two children from the third deck.

Fernandez said: 'I pushed my children off because if we didn't jump from the top, we would really get burned because the soles of our feet were already feeling the heat.'

Batangas Port Manager Joselito Sinocruz said there were 48 passengers and 34 crew members on board, with some of them jumping overboard after the fire erupted. He added the Philippine Coast Guard, port police and civilians are at the scene to battle the inferno and rescue those in the sea.

He said: 'As of 6:20 pm local time, the fire is still large and ongoing on the Starlight Asia Pacific ship. We saw it burning around 5:30 pm.'

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, has chronic corruption and underinvestment. It results in poor sea transport, with its badly regulated boats prone to overcrowding and accidents.