Rescuers struggled with strong waves and murky waters yesterday as they searched for hundreds of people, most of them teenagers from the same school, still missing after a South Korean ferry capsized on Wednesday.
South Korean coast guard and navy divers, as well as private divers, scoured the site of the accident, about 20km off the country’s southwestern coast.
Earlier, rescue teams hammered on the hull of the upturned, mostly submerged vessel, hoping for a response from people trapped inside, but they heard nothing, local media reported.
Photo: AFP
The vessel, carrying 475 passengers and crew, capsized 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 likely trapped in the vessel.
“If I could teach myself to dive, I would jump in the water and try to find my daughter,” said Park Yung-suk, a parent of a student passenger.
Her daughter was one of 340 children and teachers from the Danwon High School in Ansan, a Seoul suburb, on board the vessel.
Although the water at the site of the accident is relatively shallow at under 50m, 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 that conditions were extremely difficult.
“There is a lot of water current and silt in the water, which means visibility is very poor and the divers are basically feeling their way around,” Jardine-Smith said.
Some parents of students said they received recent text messages from their children trapped in the boat. Their claims could not be verified and there was no official confirmation of any contact with trapped survivors after the boat sank.
Amid the grief and anxiety, there was also anger and frustration.
Anger toward the heavy media presence, which many found intrusive, and a reflexive anger with just about any official who turned up.
Many said the ferry should not have left Incheon on Tuesday night because of foggy conditions.
There was outrage after survivors recounted how passengers had initially been told to stay in their seats and cabins when the ferry ran into trouble.
When South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won visited a rescue center yesterday, his jacket was pulled and water as well as water bottles were thrown at him.
“How dare you come here with your chin up?” one relative screamed at him.
One mother blocked Chung’s path as he tried to leave, saying: “Don’t run away, Mr Prime Minister! Please tell us what you’re planning to do.”
When a maritime ministry official came to say that equipment for pumping oxygen into the submerged ferry would be arriving later than announced, he was grabbed by several relatives, one of whom punched him in the face.
Han Young-hee, whose sister was on the ferry with her husband, showed pictures the couple had texted her before the accident.
“This is her posing on the deck with a coffee. They were very excited about their trip,” Han said. “That was early in the morning. There was nothing afterwards. Nothing.”
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)