Ferry-wreck bones found to be animals’

SEOUL, South Korea — Bones found near the wreckage of a South Korean ferry belonged to animals, not missing passengers from the ship’s 2014 sinking in which more than 300 people died, the government announced in a reversal Tuesday.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries had said earlier in the day that salvage crews had found bones measuring

1.5 to 7 inches that were likely from one or more of the nine missing passengers, and that DNA tests would be used to verify the identities.

But hours later, investigators from the National Forensic Service concluded after inspecting the bones that they were from unidentified animals, not humans.

The government, which has been widely criticized over its handling of the disaster, did not immediately explain how the mistake occurred.

Workers have completed an operation to lift the corroding 6,800-ton Sewol ferry from the sea, and recovering the remains of the missing victims would put the country a step closer to finding closure to one of its deadliest maritime disasters.

AP/YONHAP Workers fasten the ferry Sewol to a transport vessel Tuesday after it was raised in waters off Jindo, South Korea.