The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Fears toll may rise after ferry sinks
Nearly 300 people still missing
Aferry carrying459people, mostly high school students, has sunk off South Korea, leaving at least four people deadandnearly300 missing.
The high number of people unaccounted for - likely to be trapped in the ship or floating in the ocean - raised fears that the death toll could rise drastically, making it one of South Korea’s biggest ferry disasters since1993when292people died.
Local television stations broadcast live pictures of the ship, Sewol, listing to its side and slowly sinking even as passengers were jumping out or being winched up by h e l icopters.
At least 87 vessels and 18 aircraft swarmed around the stricken ship. Rescuers clambered over its sides, pulling out passengers wearing orange life jackets.
But the ship overturned completely and continued to sink slowly. Within a few hours only its blue and white bow was seen sticking out of the water. Very soon that too had disappeared.
Some 160 coast guard and navy divers were searching for survivors inside the ship’s wreckage, a few kilometres from the shore of Byeongpung Island, which is not too far from the mainland. The area is about 470 kilometres ( 290 miles) from Seoul.
One s t u d e n t , Lim Hyung-min, told broadcaster YTN after being rescued that he and other students jumped into the ocean wearing life jackets and then swam to a nearby rescue boat.
Those rescued – wet and manywithout shoes – were brought to the nearby Jindo Island, where medical teams wrapped them in pink blankets and checked them for injuries before settling them down on the floor of a cavernous gymnasium hall.
The ship had set sail from Incheon, a city in the northern part of the countryandthe site ofSouthKorea’s main international airport, last night for an overnight, 14-hour journey to the tourist island of Jeju.
About three hours from its destination, the ferry sent a distress call at about 9am local time after it began listing to one side, according to the ministry of security and public administration.
Officials did not know what caused it to sink, and said the focus was still on rescuing survivors.
Lee Gyeong-og, a vice minister for South Korea’s public administration and security ministry, said 30 crew members, 325 high school students, 15 school teachers and 89 non-student passengers were aboard the ship.
Kang Byung-kyu, a government minister, said two of the dead were a female crew member and a male high school student. He said a third body was also believed to be that of a student. A coast guard officer confirmed a fourth fatality but had no immediate details about it.