Amateur video filmed on a mobile phone shows passengers sitting on the floor in lifejackets on the slowly capsizing ferry before it sunk off the shore of South Korea. An announcement can be heard telling them to stay put. Video: Reuters
A six-year-old girl was rescued from the sunken ferry off South Korea but her parents remain missing. Kwon Ji-yeon, who was separated from her family during the ferry sinking, was treated in a hospital in Mokpo. Video: Reuters
The passenger ferry was carrying 477 people, of whom 164 were confirmed rescued, coast guard officials said. The ferry listed heavily onto its side and capsized in apparently calm conditions. Video: Reuters
Family and schoolmates of missing passengers of Sewol ferry accident wailing during a gathering at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea. Photograph: Yang Ji-Woong/EPA
A vessel involved in search and rescue operations passes near the upturned South Korean ferry in the sea off Jindo. Rescuers were hammering on the upturned hull of a capsized South Korea ferry today hoping for a response from hundreds of people, mostly teenage schoolchildren, believed trapped after the vessel started sinking more than 24 hours previously. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
A man on a Coast Guard ship works next to a navigation monitor during search and rescue operations. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Rescue boats sail around the South Korean passenger ship Sewol which sank, during their rescue operation in the sea off Jindo. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Amateur video footage has emerged of passengers waiting inside the capsizing South Korea ferry whicle questions have been raised about a delay in the evacuation order.
A crew member has said there was a delay in issuing an immediate evacuation order for the stricken South Korean ferry because officers on the bridge were trying to stabilise the vessel after it started to list amid confusion and chaos, a crew member says.
The first instructions from the captain were for the passengers to put on life jackets and stay put, and it was not until about 30 minutes later that he ordered an evacuation, Oh Yong-seok, 58, said.
But he was not sure if the captain’s order, given to crew members, was actually relayed to passengers on the public address system. Several survivors also said they never heard any evacuation order.
The loss of that precious time may have deprived many passengers of the opportunity to escape as The Sewol sank yesterday, not far from the southern city of Mokpo.
Strong waves and murky waters hampered rescuers today as they searched for hundreds of people , mostly teenagers from the same school, still missing .
Coastguard, navy and private divers scoured the site of the accident, about 20 km off the country‘s southwestern coast.
Earlier, rescue teams hammered on the hull of the upturned, mostly submerged vessel, hoping for a response from anyone trapped inside, but they heard nothing, local media reported.
The vessel, carrying 475 passengers and crew, capsized yesterday during a journey from the port of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju.
Nine people have been found dead and 179 were rescued, according to the South Korean government, leaving 287 unaccounted for and possibly trapped in the vessel.
One parent, Park Yung-suk, told Reuters at the port of Jindo, where rescue efforts are centred, that she had seen the body of her teenage daughter‘s teacher brought ashore.
“If I could teach myself to dive, I would jump in the water and try to find my daughter,“ she said. Her daughter was one of 340 children and teachers from the Danwon High School in Ansan, a Seoul suburb, on board the vessel.
The captain of the ship, Lee Joon-seok (69) faces a criminal investigation, coastguard officials said, amid unconfirmed reports that he was one of the first to jump to safety from the stricken vessel.
One official said authorities were investigating whether the captain had indeed abandoned the vessel early and one of the charges he faced was violating a law that governs the conduct of shipping crew.
Many survivors told local media that Mr Lee was one of the first to be rescued, although none actually saw him leave the ship. The coastguard and the ferry operator declined comment.
Although the water at the site of the accident is relatively shallow at under 50 metres , it is still dangerous for the 150 or so divers working flat out, experts said. Time was running out to find any survivors trapped inside, they said.
“The chances of finding people in there (alive) are not zero,“ said David Jardine-Smith, secretary of the International Maritime Rescue Federation, adding, however, that conditions were extremely difficult.
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