Hope then anguish over ‘Sewol’
SEOUL: Hopes rose and then were crushed on Tuesday when South Korean officials reported, and then retracted, the finding of human bones from the ferry Sewol, which sank nearly three years ago, killing more than 300 people.
When officials announced at a news briefing that they had found what they “believed were the bones of a missing person,” relatives of the nine passengers still missing, who have never given up hope of finding the remains of their loved ones, broke into tears.
But hours later, authorities withdrew the announcement.
In a brief statement sent to journalists, they said that the bones were not from a human but from “an animal”. Some local news reports said the bones belonged to a pig.
Hopes of recovering the missing passengers have risen since the 6,191.5-tonne ferry was finally lifted from the sea bottom last Thursday.
The Sewol, structurally unbalanced and overloaded, capsized and then sank off the southwest coast of South Korea on April 16, 2014. The underwater search of the ferry ended after divers recovered the 295th body, a high-school girl, from one of the ship’s restrooms on Oct 28, 2014.
After the ferry was raised last week, it was positioned on its side on a large barge-like vessel as salvage crews drained it before taking it to a nearby port for a closer inspection.
On Tuesday they found six bones, a shoe and other personal items, which had apparently washed out of the ferry as it was being drained.
Government forensic experts were sent to the scene to collect the remains.
Most of the victims were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, south of Seoul, who had boarded the ferry for a trip to an island. The nine who are still missing include four students and two teachers from the school.
The sinking, one of the country’s worst disasters, was a deeply traumatising experience for South Koreans.
When the Sewol capsized, its crew members were among the first to flee, after repeatedly telling passengers to stay in their cabins. As the ship slowly went under, teenagers trapped inside sent text messages begging for help or saying goodbye to their families.
Confusing news reports and official announcements at the time added to South Koreans’ pain over the disaster. Local news outlets initially reported that all on board the Sewol had been rescued. And the government kept releasing conflicting information on the number of people on board and the number of those rescued.