4 dead, almost 300 missing after South Korean ship sinks - CNN

• NEW: Rescue operation "nightmarish," expert says


• Officials say four people are known dead and 164 have been rescued; about 292 are missing


• Many passengers jumped from the ship to the freezing water below


• Students on board were headed to a resort on a trip

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(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 are 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 164 had been rescued after the sinking of the ferry Sewol off the southwest coast of South Korea.

Another 292 people are missing, authorities said. Among the 459 people who were aboard the ship: 325 students and 15 teachers from Seoul's Ansan Danwon High School heading to a four-day trip to Jeju, a resort island considered the Hawaii of Korea.

It was not immediately clear if the dead -- three males and a female -- were students or teachers, part of the 30-member crew or from the 89 other passengers on board the ferry.

Rescue crews attempt to save passengers of the Sewol, a South Korean ferry ship, as it sinks in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, April 16. Of the 459 people on board, 325 were students from a Seoul high school on their way to a resort island called Jeju. About 290 people remain unaccounted for, officials said.

Rescue boats scramble to save passengers from the ferry as it sinks into freezing waters on April 16.

A South Korean coast guard helicopter lifts passengers off the vessel on April 16.

Police and rescue teams carry a passenger at the port in Jindo, South Korea, on April 16.

Parents at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea, search for names of their children among the list of survivors on April 16.

Helicopters hover over the ferry as rescue operations continue April 16.

A man watches a news broadcast about the sinking vessel in Seoul.

Officials escort rescued passengers on their arrival at Jindo on April 16.

A passenger receives help onto a rescue boat on April 16.

A passenger is rescued from the sinking ship on April 16.

South Korean coast guard and rescue team members search the waters for more passengers on April 16.

Rescue teams and fishing boats try to rescue passengers on April 16.

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Photos: South Korean ship sinks

Hundreds missing when ferry sinks

The ship sank within two hours of its first distress call, which came just before 9 a.m., the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency reported. It's not known what caused the incident.

Rescued student Lim Hyung Min told CNN affiliate YTN that he heard a loud bump just before the ship began to list. Several off his classmates were flung off their feet. The crew ordered everyone to don life jackets and jump into the ocean, he said.

"I had to swim a bit to get to the boat to be rescued," he said. "The water was so cold and I wanted to live."

Passenger Kim Seung Mok said that despite his efforts and those of others, he couldn't get to several passengers on one of the decks.

"I stayed till the last to rescue people at the hall," Kim told YTN. "But the water was coming in so fast (that) some didn't make it out."

Water temperatures, swift currents and low visibility appeared to be complicating the massive rescue operation, which involved at least 178 South Korean military divers, sailors, marines and police officers.

The U.S. Navy ship USS Bonhomme Richard, on routine patrol in the area, dispatched its helicopters to aid in the rescue and was headed to the scene, the U.S. Navy said.

Divers from the South Korean navy searched three of the 6,800-ton ship's compartments but found no survivors or bodies, Yonhap reported. Another dive team was expected to continue the search shortly, the news agency said.

At Ansan Danwon High School, parents clutched their cell phones in an agonizing wait for a call from their children. Officials posted a list of names. Once a confirmation of a rescue came, they circled that name.

At one point, the school announced that all students had been rescued but soon backtracked, to the parents' wrath.

What could have caused the ship to sink so rapidly remained a mystery. The weather was clear at the time of the accident.

Peter Boynton, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, said the speed with which the ship sank suggested it had sustained "major damage." He also said that if the ferry's car deck had been breached, it could have quickly swamped the ship.

Battling against darkness, cold, swift currents and trying to find their way through a damaged, upturned ship, rescuers are "up against every sort of obstacle," said David Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

"It's just an absolutely, positively horrific situation," he said. "It's nightmarish."

Survivors tell of panic on board as ferry tilts, then capsizes

More on other major ferry and ship sinkings

Cargo ships collide outside of Tokyo Bay

Philippines ferry disaster kills dozens

CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed from Seoul; CNN's Frances Cha, Madison Park, Judy Kwon and Holly Yan also contributed to this report.

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