Philippine rescuers board ferry 40 hours after blaze began

More than 40 hours after a deadly ferry fire began, Philippine rescuers have boarded the charred remains of the MV June Aster in search of dozens of missing people.

Five people been found dead, while 43 people have been rescued, many of whom are receiving treatment in hospital. Eighty-four people remain missing.

Photos shared by the Philippine Coast Guard on Friday morning showed smoke still curling from the ferry, which had been travelling from the capital Manila to the island of Coron - though the plumes appear to have died down in fresh photos from Friday afternoon.

Officials struggled to board the hull since operations began on Wednesday because of the toxic fumes and heat.

They finally got on at about 11:30 local time (03:30 GMT) on Friday, the coast guard said.

"The biggest challenge for us really is to penetrate the ship [as] there is still a visible, thick smoke," the coastguard's spokeswoman Noemie Cayabyab told the BBC earlier.

"No matter how we try to push through, high temperatures and toxic smoke remain a severe risk to our personnel," she told local media earlier.

Smoke resulting from incomplete burning contains dense, lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide.