Officials: 180 still missing

By ELLEN TIAMU
THE provincial disaster office in Lae, Morobe, says there could be as many as 180 still unaccounted for following the sinking of the mv Rabaul Queen off Finschhafen last Thursday morning.
Acting provincial administrator and disaster chairman Patillas Gamato, when briefing leaders from East New Britain and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Lae yesterday, said the manifest supplied by the ship’s operators, Rabaul Shipping, listed a total of 379 people on board when tragedy struck.
The record of survivors who came ashore on two boat loads last Thursday night and early Friday morning indicated 243 people which, according to authorities, meant 136 people were missing.
Taking into account the possibility of more people aboard the ship and fluidity of figures, provincial disaster officers are cautiously optimistic that the number of missing persons could be higher.
Search and rescue officers say attempts to collate correct figures is taking longer than expected because the ones provided by the company do not correspond with what survivors and relatives have indicated on the lists pinned up on walls at the disaster office. 
Many relatives and guardians have resigned themselves to the fact that the possibility of finding family members alive is very slim with many saying the least they want is for the bodies to be found so that burial will give them some kind of closure to the sad ordeal.
Search is still continuing around the Finschhafen areas and as far south as the Northern province coast.
Three adult female bodies were recovered last Saturday plus that of a five-year-old boy which was found the next day.
Authorities are dismissing as untruths, rumours circulating that about 20 people (survivors) have been found on Siassi and Tuam islands in Finschhafen.
They said the mobile phone prankster had been tracked to East New Britain and had cautioned the public to be wary of giving false information.