At least 4 dead, 292 missing after ferry sinks off South Korean coast

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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/16/south-korea-ship-with-471-people-aboard-is-sinking-authorities-say/

South Korean officials said Wednesday that nearly 300 people were still missing several hours after a multi-story passenger ferry sank off that country's southern coast, leaving at least four dead and dozens injured.

The ferry was carrying 459 people, most of them high school students, and was bound for the island of Jeju when it sent a distress call at around 9 a.m. local time Wednesday as it began leaning to one side, according to South Korea's Ministry of Security and Public Administration. 

Lee Gyeong-og, a vice minister for South Korea's Public Administration and Security Ministry, said the 459 people included 30 crew members, 325 high school students, 15 school teachers and 89 non-student passengers.

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Rescuers search dark, cold sea for survivors of shipwreck off South Korea

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/world/asia/south-korea-sinking-ship-students/

(CNN) -- Military dive teams worked the dark, cold waters of the Yellow Sea on Wednesday night in a desperate effort to find nearly 300 people who remained missing after the ferry they were taking to a South Korean island resort sank with breathtaking speed.

Officials said four people were known dead and at least 164 had been rescued after the ferry Sewol swiftly listed and then capsized off the southwest coast of South Korea.

Nearly 300 others are missing, authorities said, but the exact number of passengers aboard the ferry was unclear amid the confusion of the rescue effort.

The bulk of those aboard were students and teachers from Seoul's Ansan Danwon High School heading to a four-day trip to Jeju, a resort island considered the Hawaii of Korea. More than 300 students and more than a dozen teachers from the school were on board, according to officials.

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Sadness, Desperation as Ferry Sinks Off South Korea

http://abcnews.go.com/International/photos/rescue-crews-respond-ferry-sinks-23340868/image-photo-mother-weeps-search-childrens-names-list-survivors-23341037

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Doomed teens texted parents from sinking Korean ferry

http://nypost.com/2014/04/16/doomed-teens-texted-parents-from-sinking-korean-ferry/

With water quickly flooding the decks and a mammoth South Korean ferry about to sink, desperate students took to their smartphones Wednesday to text their last goodbyes.

?Mom, I want to say this before it?s too late,? one student wrote. ?I love you.?

That student is among the 290 reported still missing.

Another student traded texts with his mom, who had no clue the ferry was in danger.

?Mom, I might not be able to tell you in person. I love you,? the student texted, according to a Korean news agency.

?Me too, son. I love you,? the mother texted back, followed by three heart symbols.

He was among those rescued from the boat, the Sewol.

?Dad, don?t worry. I?ve got a life vest on and we?re huddled together,? a high-school girl wrote.

?I know the rescue is under way, but make your way out if you can,? he replied.

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Questions mount in South Korean ferry disaster; hundreds still missing

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/world/asia/south-korea-ship-sinking/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- Anguished relatives of missing South Korean ferry passengers waited somberly for answers Thursday as rescuers fought bad weather, murky water, darkness and time to find a way deep into the capsized ship.

Authorities believe 287 people -- many of them high school students on a field trip -- remain trapped inside the five-story ship. At least some, authorities say, could still be alive more than a day after the ship rolled over.

Heartbreaking text messages purportedly from missing passengers amplified the grief.

"Mom, in case I won't get to tell you, I'm sending this. I love you," reads one purported message carried by CNN affiliate YTN.

"There are a few people in the ship," another student purportedly wrote to his mother, "and we are not dead yet, so please send along this message."

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South Korea's response to ferry sinking assailed; captain apologizes

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-ferry-sinking-20140417,0,3689639.story#axzz2z9frexIp

SEOUL ? Angry relatives of passengers aboard a sunken South Korean ferry criticized the government?s response Thursday as the ship?s captain made an emotional apology for fleeing the vessel before hundreds of others had a chance to get out.

As of Thursday afternoon, 287 people remained missing, most of them high school students on a trip. Nine people were confirmed dead and 179 had been rescued. The official death toll was expected to rise significantly in the coming days, as most of the missing are believed to be trapped underwater inside the ship, named the Sewol.

President Park Geun-hye traveled to the site of the sinking, off the nation?s southern coast, touring the area by boat and later meeting with families of the passengers. But tempers flared as parents argued for a larger-scale diving operation to find the missing. Prime Minister Chung Hong-won was nearly attacked by grieving families as he arrived on the scene. Photos showed him being shielded from a water bottle that was thrown at him.

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Arrest warrant sought for ferry captain; rescued school official found hanged

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/18/transcript-shows-ferry-captain-delayed-evacuation/

Prosecutors say they've asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the South Korean ferry that sank two days ago ? leaving at least 28 dead and hundreds missing ? as the investigation into the disaster focused on steering decisions and whether a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved more lives.

Also Friday, a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanged from a tree on Jindo, an island near the wreckage where rescued passengers have been housed.

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South Korean ferry captain taken into custody; rescued school official found hanged

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/18/transcript-shows-ferry-captain-delayed-evacuation/

The captain of a South Korean ferry carrying 475 passengers that sank on Wednesday -- killing 28 and leaving 270 missing ? arrived in court late Friday night to face a prosecutor?s request for his formal arrest.

Lee Joon-seok, 68, was taken into custody amid reports that an inexperienced crew member may have been at the ship's control when it overturned, and survivors' claims that the crew did not act swiftly enough to evacuate its mostly high school-student passengers.

Also Friday, a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanged from a tree on Jindo, an island near the wreckage where rescued passengers have been housed.

The vice principal, identified as Kang Min-kyu, was the lead guide for 323 students on a school trip. He said in a suicide note that he felt guilty for being alive while more than 200 of his students were missing. Kang said he wanted to take responsibility for what happened because he had led the trip, according to police. He asked that his body be cremated and the ashes scattered at the accident site

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Mate steering doomed ferry navigating waters for first time, prosecutor says

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/19/transcript-shows-ferry-captain-delayed-evacuation/

The third mate steering a South Korean ferry carrying 475 passengers that sank on Wednesday, killing 32 and leaving 270 missing, was navigating those waters for the first time when the accident occurred, a prosecutor said Saturday.

Senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin told reporters that the 25-year-old mate was steering the ship as it passed through an area with lots of islands clustered close together and fast currents.

Yang said that another mate usually took controls through the area. But because heavy fog caused a departure delay, the third mate was steering the ship through the waters. Yang said investigators have not confirmed whether the ship was going faster than usual.

Prosecutors said the ferry captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, was arrested early Saturday along helmsman Cho Joon-ki, 55, and the ship's 25-year-old third mate. Another helmsman, Park Kyung-nam, identified the mate as Park Han-kyul.

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'Save us': Boy's desperate call from doomed S. Korean ferry reveals horror

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/22/death-toll-in-ferry-disaster-tops-100/

A boy's desperate call from aboard a doomed South Korean ferry captured the horror on the ship as it sank in the Yellow Sea last Wednesday, killing at least 104 and leaving hundreds more missing.

"Save us! We're on a ship and I think it's sinking," Yonhap news agency quoted the boy, who is among the hundreds missing, as saying. His phone call to emergency dispatchers, believed to be the first made from the ship, was initially routed to fire officials before being patched through to the coast guard some two minutes later.

Word of the plaintive call came as investigators said their earlier conclusion that the sunken ferry had made a sharp turn shortly before the disaster was incorrect, and that the vessel changed course much more gradually.

The fire service official asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy reportedly responded, "Do you mean teacher?" The pronunciation of the words for "captain" and "teacher" is similar in Korean, according to Reuters.

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Ferry victims? bodies found in ?freeze-frame of panic?

http://nypost.com/2014/04/25/divers-recover-bodies-in-freeze-frame-of-panic-at-ferry-site/

JINDO, South Korea ? Divers grope their way slowly through the dark corridors and cabins of the sunken Sewol ferry. Bodies appear suddenly, floating by in the murky water, buoyed by life-jackets or the bloat of decomposition, their faces etched with fear or shock.

Some are still locked together in embraces, a freeze-frame of panic as the water rushed in and the ship sank. The hair of female corpses ripples in the current, framing pale faces.

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Broken Fingers Reveal South Korea Ferry Victims' Escape Bids

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/south-korea-ferry-disaster/broken-fingers-reveal-south-korea-ferry-victims-escape-bids-n87416

Many of the children's bodies recovered from the sunken South Korea ferry in the past two days had broken fingers, local media reported - suggesting the victims had frantically tried to climb walls or floors to escape in their final moments.

Divers continued to swim though dark, cold waters into the submerged Sewol Wednesday, feeling for bodies with their hands in a maze of cabins, corridors and upturned decks.

"We have to touch everything with our hands,? said diver Hwang Dae-sik, whose team had retrieved 14 bodies so far.

?This is the most grueling and heartbreaking job of my career," he said.

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South Korea ferry disaster: All navigation crew 'held'

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27169401

All 15 crew members involved in the navigation of the ill-fated South Korean passenger ferry Sewol are now reportedly in custody, facing criminal negligence charges.

The prosecution requested arrest warrants for four additional crew members. Eleven others, including the captain, had been detained earlier.

The ferry with 476 people on board sank off South Korea on 16 April.

Divers have recovered 183 bodies, but scores are missing presumed drowned.

Many of the victims were students and teachers from Danwon high school, south of Seoul.

The ferry sank on a trip from the port of Incheon to the island of Jeju.
'Incredible loss'

In the latest move on Saturday, the arrests warrants were issued for two helmsmen and two members of the steering crew.

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South Korea lowers survivor count in ferry disaster

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/south-korea-lowers-survivor-count-in-ferry-disaster/article5985830.ece

Three weeks after South Korea?s ferry tragedy, the government on Wednesday said it miscounted the number of survivors, a stunning error and the latest of many missteps that have eroded the nation?s confidence in its leaders.

Coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16, 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18.

Mr. Kim said one of the survivors was accidentally listed twice, and he blamed the other mistake on an inaccurate report by a passenger.

Another coast guard officer said the passenger falsely told authorities he had been travelling with someone who had sneaked on board and therefore was not on the ship?s list of passengers. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn?t authorised to speak to media on the matter. She said the passenger later told officials he gave wrong information because he had ?lost track of things?.

Mr. Kim also said there are two more missing passengers than authorities previously knew about. Both are Chinese nationals.

That change raises the number of people feared dead to 304. So far 269 bodies have been recovered, and divers are searching for 35 more people. More than 80 per cent of the dead are students from a single high school near Seoul who were on a trip to southern Jeju island.