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.”
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