Police in Tonga revealed that at least one person is dead and more than 25 people who were passengers on the MV Princess Ashika are yet to be found.

Commander of the Police Force Chris Kelly said they think there might be more people still unaccounted for, however, they cannot confirm this at the moment.

Meanwhile, reports from the local newspaper Matangi Tonga said that there are fears that majority of the passengers who were women and children are still missing at sea.

Owners of the MV Ashika which sank at 11pm last night just north-east of Nuku’Alofa, the Polynesian Shipping Corporation, released the list of 96 passengers two hours ago.

Eyewitness Siaosi Lavaka told Matangi Tonga that only men were on the 7 lifeboats that reached safety before the boat went down.

The New Zealand Defence Force are assisting the local search and rescue and will be working for as long as they can before an assessment is carried out on their progress.

So far 53 people have been rescued.