Divers searched for victims of the sunken South Korean ferry today as the weather threatened to disrupt operations and investigators sought arrest warrants for a further four crew members.
The death toll from the sinking of the Sewol off the Korean peninsula’s southwest coast on April 16 reached 187 as of 10 a.m. local time, according to an e-mailed statement from the government. At least 100 people are still missing after 174 of the vessel’s 476 passengers and crew were rescued.
The captain and 10 crew members of the ferry have been arrested and investigators are seeking warrants for four more, prosecutor Yang Joong Jin said by phone from Mokpo today. The search effort may be hampered by the weather, with strong winds and rain forecast for the region at the weekend, the government said.
“The government is fully committed to the search though the weather is expected to be worsen from this afternoon,” Ko Myung Suk, director general at the Korea Coast Guard, said at a briefing. “About 104 divers will move in today, focusing on searching the ship’s third and fourth floors.”
Captain Lee Joon Seok, 69, wasn’t on the bridge when the Sewol ran into trouble, prosecutor Park Jae Uck said last week. He had assigned the third navigation officer to steer the ship.
“He may have returned to the wheelhouse as the ferry began tilting,” the prosecutor said.
Investigators said they are probing whether the ferry, which is now entirely submerged, turned too quickly or abnormally. There have been no survivors found since the day of the sinking.
Most of the missing passengers are from a group of 325 students and 14 teachers from Danwon High School, who were on an excursion to Jeju island.
The school’s vice principal Kang Min Kyu, who was on the ferry and survived, was found hanged behind the gymnasium on April 18, police official Lee Sung Hun told reporters.
The ferry, named Sewol, or “time and tide” in Korean, listed and capsized in an area of the ocean as shallow as 20 meters (66 feet) in some parts, based on readings from a coast guard vessel used in the rescue operation. The ship was en route from Incheon to Jeju island, popular with tourists.
The U.S. will support every effort in the search for passengers and crew of sunken South Korean ferry, U.S. President Barack Obama said in Seoul today after a meeting with President Park Geun Hye.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kyungji Cho in Seoul at kcho54@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net Jim McDonald
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