Rescuers position an oil boom near the sunken passenger ferry MV Princess of the Stars, off Sibuyan Island, in central Philippines, on Tuesday. Still hoping for a miracle, divers wriggled into the upside-down ferry Tuesday but found only bodies three days after the capsizing, officials said. (Office of the Vice-President Noli de Castro, Egay Montana/Associated Press)No survivors were found Tuesday inside a capsized ferry in the Philippines after divers forced their way into the upturned hull of the ship that tipped over three days ago in a powerful typhoon.

Philippines rescue officials say 850 passengers and crew were aboard the MV Princess of the Stars when it capsized on Saturday. Fewer than 40 survived, including 28 who managed to get into a lifeboat in the stormy seas.

Philippines navy spokesman Lt.-Col. Edgard Arevalo said it seemed unlikely that there would be any surviving passengers. He said naval divers who wriggled inside the ship's hull found it too dark to count the trapped bodies, but did identify one dead crewmember whose hand still gripped a radio.

"Most of the bodies were floating inside. They were trapped when the seven-storey ship suddenly tilted and capsized," he told a Philippines radio station.

Arevalo said it was possible some of those pinned inside the hull could have survived the initial capsizing, but the heaving seas from Typhoon Fengshen had kept rescuers at bay too long and anyone left alive inside the vessel had probably suffocated.

He said some of the bodies seen by divers were wearing life-jackets but many passengers apparently hesitated to jump into the turbulent waters before the ship tipped because "it happened too sudden." Survivors said the ship listed and turned over in half an hour or less.

Passengers who escaped from the ferry before it capsized recuperate at Quezon Memorial Hospital in Lucena City, about 170 kilometres south of Manila, where they were brought Monday after drifting at sea for two days. (Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)

"If there are survivors [in the ship], they could only be found in the forward portion, because if the vessel is no longer watertight, water would enter all its spaces that are submerged," Arevalo said.

Cargo of oil could leak

Coast guard chief Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said about 20 coast guard and navy divers were at the scene and that the U.S. navy ship Stockham had arrived with frogmen and search-and-rescue helicopters.

He said the divers had broken windows and used every other gap they could find to slip inside the 22,000-tonne ship, which was resting on the sea bed with just its bow jutting from the water off Sibuyan Island.

Arevalo said the priority now is to remove bodies. He said options include attaching weights to them and then pulling them down and out, or cutting the hull — a prospect complicated by tanks of fuel oil that could leak and turn the human disaster into an environmental one.

Officials initially reported 747 passengers and crew were aboard the ferry, but said Monday that it was carrying about 100 more.

Six bodies, including those of a man and woman who had bound themselves together, have washed ashore, along with children's slippers and life-jackets.

Relatives question why ferry left in storm

While some relatives tearfully waited for news, others angrily questioned why the ship was allowed to leave Manila late Friday for a 20-hour trip to Cebu with a typhoon approaching.

The shipping company, Sulpicio Lines, said the coast guard approved the ship's departure. The government ordered the company to suspend services pending an investigation and a check of its other ships' seaworthiness.

Debate also began anew on safe-sailing rules in a country prone to storms — Fengshen was the seventh typhoon this year — and dependent on ferries to get around the sprawling archipelago.

While the official national death toll from the typhoon stood at 117, the worst-hit region reported 227 dead and 275 missing. The figures did not include those aboard the ferry.

With files from the Associated Press