Families’ grief as Sewol ferry raised from sea

A MOTHER’S wail for her missing child pierced the silence in the South Korean port of Paengmok yesterday as the Sewol ferry was raised – three years after it sank with the loss of 304 lives.

Most of the victims were teenagers from Danwon high school in Ansan, near the capital, Seoul. Many perished after being told to wait in their cabins instead of evacuating. Nine bodies were never found.

Families gathered on a boat to oversee the raising of the ship, while others watched from the top of a hill.

The 145-metre long ferry began to break the surface at about 4am, seven hours after a Chinese consortium began to use two salvage barges to raise it in a $72 million operation.

Lee Keum-hee, the mother of missing student Cho Eun-hwa, said: “Soon after the ferry began to be lifted, I became devastated that my daughter has been left in such a filthy place.”

The ferry will be moved by ship to the port of Mokpo where officials hope to find out why it sank and recover the bodies of the missing victims.