Four people survived a month adrift in the Pacific Ocean after their boat capsized off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The survivors - including a girl aged around 12, a woman, a boy in his 20s, and an adult male - had set off from Bougainville island on December 22.

The group, which initially numbered 12, had been intending to celebrate Christmas on the island Carteret Islands, around 62 miles away, when disaster struck.

Four people - including Dominic Stally (left), a man in his 20s (right), a woman and a 12-year-old girl - survived 32 days adrift in the Pacific after their boat capsized on December 22

Survivor Dominic Stally said their small boat capsized and a number of the group drowned.

The rest managed to right the vessel but there were further fatalities as they floated in the remote waters at the mercy of powerful ocean currents.

'We could do nothing with their dead bodies, we just have to let go of them at sea,' he told the Solomon Star News.

'A couple have died and left behind their baby and I am the one who held onto the baby and later the baby died as well.'

Stally said the group survived by eating coconuts they found in the water, and by drinking rain they collected in a bowl.

He added that a number of fishing vessels passed nearby without noticing them until they were finally picked up on January 23 off New Caledonia after drifting some 1,200 miles (2,000km.)

The group, which initially contained 12 people, were cast adrift after their boat capsized on December 22 near Bourgainville Island. Several people drowned, while a couple and their baby are thought to have survived the initial capsizing but died later

The Star News said the survivors comprised two men, a woman and a girl aged about 12.

They were dropped off in Honiara last Saturday and were discharged into the care of PNG High Commissioner John Balavu after receiving treatment for dehydration.

Epic tales of survival are not uncommon in the Pacific, where tiny islands are separated by vast expanses of ocean.

In January 2014, Salvadoran fisherman Jose Alvarenga washed up in the Marshalls, more than 13 months after he set off from Mexico's west coast with a companion, who died during the voyage.

An Indonesian teenager survived seven weeks at sea in 2018 after his tiny fishing trap lost its moorings and ended up some 2,500 kilometres away off Guam.