MANILA: Heavy rain pounded the Philippines capital and surrounding areas for a third day Wednesday, adding to the misery of nearly 300,000 exhausted people displaced from their flooded homes.

Fifteen people have been confirmed killed by the monsoon rains and floods that have battered the country’s main island of Luzon.

The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the victims mostly drowned, including an 84-year-old woman who perished in a suburb of Manila.

As of nightfall Wednesday about 15 percent of Metro Manila, a low-lying and sprawling city of 12 million people, was still flooded, down from 50 percent on Tuesday, said Mon Viloria of the city’s Civil Defense office.

Separately, the confirmed death toll from a ferry disaster in the Philippines rose to 71 on Wednesday as hopes faded for finding any more survivors of the tragedy, authorities said.

Divers pulled out six more bodies from the interior of the sunken ferry while body parts were found on a small island nearby, said provincial disaster management officer Neil Sanchez.

Discovery of the additional bodies brought to 49 the number of people still missing after the St. Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship off the central island of Cebu on Friday night and quickly sank.

“If we have to assess the situation, I would say that chances are already slim of finding survivors,” Sanchez said.

It is believed that many of the bodies of the missing are still trapped in the interior of the sunken ship.

Strong currents and bad weather as well as the difficulty of reaching the ferry, lying at a depth of about 30 meters (98 feet) has slowed down recovery efforts.

But Sanchez said they had made a commitment to find the bodies of all the missing.