Anguish as parents ID children from sunken ferry
JINDO, SOUTH KOREA For a moment there is silence in the tent where bodies from the ferry disaster are brought for identification. Then the anguished cries begin.
The families who line up here to view the decomposing bodies have not known for nearly a week whether they should grieve or not. Now that they know, they sound as if they’re being torn apart.
“How do I live without you? How will your mother live without you?” a woman cried out Tuesday.
She was with a woman who emerged from the tent crying and fell into a chair where relatives tried to comfort her. One stood above her and cradled her head in her hands, stroking her face.
“Bring back my daughter!” the woman cried, calling out her child’s name in agony. A man rushed over, lifted her on his back and carried her away.
The confirmed death toll from the April 16 disaster reached 135 on Tuesday, officials said, and nearly 170 people were still missing. Four crew members accused of abandoning the ship and failing to protect the passengers were arrested, three days after warrants were issued for the captain and two other crew.
The victims are overwhelmingly students of a single high school in Ansan, near Seoul. More than three-quarters of the 323 students are dead or missing, while nearly two-thirds of the other 15 3 people on board the ferry Sewol survived.
The number of corpses recovered has risen sharply since the week- end, when divers battling strong currents and low visibility were finally able to enter the vessel.
Emergency task force spokesperson Koh Myung-seok said bodies have been found mainly on the third and fourth floors of the ferry, where many passengers seemed to have gathered. Many students were housed in cabins on the fourth floor, near the stern of the ship, Koh said.
Twenty-two of the 29 members of the ferry’s crew survived, and nine of them have been arrested or detained in connection with the investigation.
The captain, Lee Joon-seok, and two crew members were arrested Saturday on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need. Prosecutor Yang Jung-jin said a court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for four other crew members authorities had detained a day earlier. Two additional crew members were detained Tuesday.
The four crew members arrested Tuesday talked to reporters after a court hearing, their f aces hidden with caps, hooded sweatshirts and masks.
The captain has said he waited to issue an evacuation order because the current was strong, the water was cold and passengers could have drifted away before help arrived. But maritime experts said he could have ordered passengers to the deck — where they would have had a greater chance of survival — without telling them to abandon ship.
The cause of the disaster is not yet known.