(Recasts with new tolls of missing and stranded) BEIJING, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Some 25 sailors were missing in the South China Sea on Friday after a Philippine fishing boat capsized in rough waters, China's Xinhua news agency reported. The Philippine ship, numbered "805900", was carrying about 80 sailors when it sank near the Nansha Islands on Thursday morning in heavy winds. Hundreds more fisherman from China, Vietnam and the Philippines were stranded on the Nansha Islands, a group of islets, reefs and sand banks also known as the Spratly Islands, whose sovereignty is contested. "They are facing a danger from shortages of food and water as they await rescue," the Xinhua report said, citing the China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre. Rescue ships were on their way to the site and China's Ministry of Communications had ordered passing vessels to help search for the missing seamen. The ministry was also working with the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre in the southern island province of Hainan to coordinate rescue efforts and confirm the exact number of sailors aboard the Philippine ship, the report said. In a separate accident on Friday, a barge and a passenger ferry carrying 34 people collided in the Pearl River in the southern province of Guangdong, leaving eight missing. Twenty-six had been rescued, and divers were searching for the missing, Xinhua reported. (Reporting by Lindsay Beck, editing by Nick Macfie)
