Rescuers from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) are searching for eight missing crew members of a fishing vessel that sank off Palawan province after colliding with a cargo vessel on Saturday afternoon.

The collision occurred before 6:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, 26 km northeast of Maracanao Island, Commodore Armand Balilo said.

Thirteen out of the 21 crew had been rescued. The cargo vessel MV Happy Hiro, en route to the central Philippines, was not damaged.

(With input from Xinhua)