Over 700 passengers were evacuated Wednesday afternoon from a ferry that has been stranded for hours in a strait between the coastal province of Guangdong and the island province of Hainan.

The ship, registered under the name of "Nanfang 1" in Zhanjiang city, Guangdong, has been stranded in the Qiongzhou Strait since 2:15 p.m. shortly after it left port in Guangdong's Xuwen county for Haikou city in Hainan, according the Guangdong provincial maritime rescue center.

The 109-meter-long ship had 815 people on board, including 778 passengers and 37 crew members. It also carried 86 cars and 732 tonnes of cargo.

As of 6:48 p.m., a total of 702 passengers have been safely relocated to three ships that arrived in the rescue effort, while the rest - mostly drivers- chose to stay on the ship with their cars, rescuers said.

The ship, currently in a safe state, is expected to refloat with the rising tide late Wednesday night, rescuers said.

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