S. Korea ferry sinking: "Tantamount to murder," SK President says (Updated Monday)

(Monday) South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said Monday that the behaviour of the captain and crew of the ferry that capsized five days ago with 476 people on board was unacceptable and "tantamount to murder".

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Monday morning update

S. Korea president says ferry captain's action 'tantamount to murder'

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said Monday that the behaviour of the captain and crew of the ferry that capsized five days ago with 476 people on board was unacceptable and "tantamount to murder".

"The actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder," the presidential Blue House quoted Park as saying in a meeting with senior aides.

Park said it was increasingly clear that Captain Lee Joon-Seok had unnecessarily delayed the evacuation of passengers as the ferry started sinking, and then "deserted them" by escaping first.

Lee was arrested on Saturday along with a helmsman and the ship's relatively inexperienced third officer, who was in charge of the bridge when the ship first ran into trouble.

"This is utterly unimaginable, legally and ethically," she said, adding that all parties to the disaster, from the owners, to the safety inspectors to the crew would be investigated and all those responsible would be held "criminally accountable."

Sunday morning update

First bodies pulled from submerged Korean ferry

JINDO , South Korea, AFP — Divers retrieved 16 bodies Sunday from inside the submerged South Korean ferry that capsized four days ago with hundreds of children on board, opening a grim new chapter in the search and recovery process.

The recovery of the first bodies from the interior of the ferry came after prosecutors revealed that the officer at the helm of the 6,825-tonne Sewol when it capsized Wednesday was not familiar with those particular waters.

The confirmed death toll from the disaster now stands at 49 with 253 people still unaccounted for.

Three bodies were pulled out of the fully submerged ferry just before midnight and another 13 were recovered later Sunday morning, a coastguard spokesman said.

The breakthrough followed days of fruitless efforts by more than 500 divers to access the interior of the capsized ship, while battling powerful currents and near-zero visibility.

Their recovery looks set to dash the slim hopes of distraught relatives who had clung desperately to the idea that some passengers may have survived in air pockets in the upturned vessel.

Few details were provided of the 13 bodies recovered, but relatives of the missing gathered on Jindo island – close to the disaster site – have begun providing DNA samples to facilitate identification.

Saturday morning update

Here is the latest as of this morning from AFP

(Audio follows full text below)

S. Korea ferry captain arrested, divers spot bodies

JINDO, South Korea, AFP — Investigators on Saturday arrested the captain accused of abandoning the South Korean ferry that capsized three days ago with 476 people on board, as divers finally accessed the submerged vessel and spotted bodies inside.

Lee Joon-Seok and two of his crew were taken into police custody in the early hours of the morning, charged with negligence and failing to secure the safety of passengers in violation of maritime law.

The 69-year-old captain has been severely criticised for abandoning his ship as it sank Wednesday morning off the southwest coast while hundreds remained trapped on board, most of them children on a high school holiday trip.

Twenty-nine people have been confirmed dead in the disaster, but 273 are still missing.

As the arrests were being made, dive teams who had spent two days vainly battling powerful currents and near zero visibility, finally penetrated the passenger decks of the 6,825-tonne Sewol.

"Civilian divers spotted three bodies through a window," said Choi Sang-Hwan, deputy director of the national coastguard.

"They attempted to get in and retrieve them by cracking the window, but it was too difficult," he said in a briefing to relatives of the missing.

Many of the more than 500 divers working on the rescue teams are civilian volunteers.

Nets will be placed around the submerged ferry to prevent any bodies drifting away during the eventual recovery process, Choi said, while adding that the rescue teams had not given up hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.

Captain Lee was arraigned along with the two officers in charge of the bridge at the time.

Dressed in dark raincoats with their hoods pulled up, the three kept their heads bowed as they were paraded before TV cameras in a police station.

Questioned by TV reporters as to why passengers had been ordered not to move for more than 40 minutes after the ship first foundered, Lee said it was a safety measure.

"At the time a rescue ship had not arrived. There were also no fishing boats around for rescues, or other ships to help," Lee said.

"The currents were very strong and the water was cold at that time in the area.

"I thought that passengers would be swept far away and fall into trouble if they evacuated thoughtlessly," he added.

Experts have suggested many more people might have escaped if they had moved to reach evacuation points before the ship listed sharply and water started flooding in.

Lee also confirmed he was not the helm when the ship ran into trouble, and was returning to the bridge from his cabin.

The hundreds of relatives camped out in a gymnasium on Jindo island near the scene of the disaster – most of the them parents of high school students – have sharply criticised the pace of the rescue operation, accusing officials of incompetence and indifference.

Only 174 were rescued when the ferry sank and no new survivors have been found since Wednesday.

The unfolding tragedy was compounded by the apparent suicide Friday of the students' high school vice principal, Kang Min-Kyu, who was seemingly overcome by guilt at having survived the sinking.

Kang, 52, was found hanging from a tree near the Jindo gymnasium. Local media said he had left a note, saying: "Surviving alone is too painful... I take full responsibility."

More than 350 of those on board were students from Kang's Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul.

Initial questioning of the captain has focused on what actually caused the ferry to sink.

Tracking data from the Maritime Ministry showed the vessel made a sharp turn just before sending its first distress signal.

Some experts believe a tight turn could have dislodged the heavy cargo manifest – including more than 150 vehicles – and destabilised the vessel, causing it to list heavily and then capsize.

But others suggested the turn might have been caused by a collision with a rock or other submerged object.

Three giant, floating cranes are now at the rescue site, but coastguard officials stressed they would not begin lifting the multi-deck ferry until they were sure there were no survivors inside.

Friday morning update

The first of three giant cranes has arrived at the site of the capsized South Korean ferry. Together they will slowly hoist the vessel out of the water. When that happens, the death toll, now at 28 confirmed dead, is certain to rise dramatically. About 270 passengers are still unaccounted for.

Here is the latest as of this morning from AFP:

Captain not at helm of capsized Korean ferry

The captain was not at the helm of the South Korean ferry that capsized two days ago, investigators said Friday, as anger spread over stalled rescue efforts for hundreds of missing passengers trapped by the submerged vessel.

More than 48 hours after the 6,825-tonne Sewol suddenly listed and then sank, a small of army of more than 500 exhausted divers -- battling powerful currents in almost zero visibility -- have yet to obtain any access to the ferry's interior.

The confirmed death toll rose overnight to 25 (now 28), but the focus of concern remained the 271 people still unaccounted for – hundreds of them children on a high school outing to the southern resort island of Jeju.

The newly recovered bodies were all floating in the water, coastguard officials said, as the dive teams worked in shifts to find a way inside the submerged vessel in the increasingly slim hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.

Unable to secure an entry point for now, they bored holes in the keel – a small section of which was still visible above the water -- for oxygen lines.

"Two divers are currently injecting oxygen into the ship," a coastguard official told AFP.

The weather conditions were extremely challenging, with rain, fog and strong sea swells

Of the 452 people on board the Sewol when it capsized Wednesday morning, 179 were rescued, but no new survivors have been found since Wednesday.

Three giant, floating cranes had arrived at the disaster site, but coastguard officials said they could not begin lifting the multi-layered ferry until they were sure there were no survivors inside.

Thursday afternoon update

"Stay put" may have cost many lives

SEOUL, Korea, AFP -- National shock at a ferry disaster that may have killed hundreds of South Korean schoolchildren was mixed with fury Thursday over growing evidence that many passengers were denied a proper chance to escape.

Multiple survivor testimony highlighted the fact that passengers were repeatedly told to stay in their seats or cabins when the ferry first ran into trouble on Wednesday morning.

Those who obeyed found their possible escape route severely compromised after the vessel suddenly listed sharply to the port side, triggering total panic.

One survivor named Kim Sung-Mook said he had struggled to rescue around 30 high school students unable to escape from a large open hall on the fourth level of the ship.

"I couldn't even get into the hall because the whole thing was leaning over so badly," Kim said.

"The ship was going underwater and there was nothing for them to hold on to with their hands. They couldn't crawl up the floor because it was wet and at such a sharp angle," he said.

Using a fire hose he managed to pull a few to safety, "but there were so many of them... I couldn't help them all."

One student who was rescued said most passengers had remained in their seat for "30 to 40 minutes" after the ferry first foundered, in line with instructions from crew members and over the internal tannoy system.

"The message was repeated again and again: 'Stay put. Don't move'," said another survivor, Huh Young-Ki.

"We were asking ourselves: 'Shouldn't we move? Shouldn't we try and get out?' But the announcement was saying help would be there in 10 minutes," Huh told the News Y television channel.

Discipline is strict in the South Korean education system and authority rarely flouted, leaving observers to conclude that most of the 375 high school students on the ferry, in their late teens, would probably have obeyed any official commands without question.

Morning story

Fears grow for hundreds missing in S. Korea ferry capsize

JINDO, South Korea, AFP — The frantic search for nearly 300 people, most of them schoolchildren, missing after a South Korean ferry capsized, slipped into a second day Thursday, as distraught relatives maintained an agonised vigil on shore.

Six people were confirmed dead, but with every hour that passed fears mounted for the 290 still unaccounted for after the multi-storey vessel with 475 on board suddenly listed, capsized and then sank 20 kilometres offshore.

Naval and coastguard vessels used floodlights and flares to keep the search operation going through the night, but strong currents and low visibility hampered efforts by diving teams to access the submerged vessel in the hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.

"They were unable to enter any of the cabins," said one senior coastguard official.

The coastguard said 179 people had been rescued, a figure little changed from the previous evening.

It was still unclear what caused the 6,825-tonne Sewol to sink, although numerous passengers spoke of a loud thud and the vessel coming to an abrupt, shuddering halt – suggesting it had run aground or hit a submerged object.

Distressing mobile phone footage taken by one survivor emerged Thursday, showing the panic on board with one woman desperately screaming "The water's coming, the water's coming."

The captain was among those rescued and was being questioned by coastguard officials.

The passengers included 375 high school students travelling with their teachers to the popular island resort of Jeju.

On nearby Jindo island where anxious relatives wrapped in blankets sat throughout the night waiting for news, there was a mood of angry desperation.

"My daughter is out there, somewhere out there in the cold sea. Please help," said mother Park Yu-Shin.

Some were outraged by survivor testimony that passengers had been told not to move in the crucial period after the ferry stopped and before it listed sharply to the side.

"We must have waited 30 to 40 minutes after the crew told us to stay put," said one rescued student.

"Then everything tilted over and everyone started screaming and scrambling to get out," he said.

A special boat packed with relatives of the missing left Jindo early Thursday for the site of the capsized ferry.

Rescuers said they feared hundreds had been unable to escape the vessel before it became completely inverted and sank with only a small section of keel sticking above the surface.

One senior rescue team official, Cho Yang-Bok, said there was "little chance" of anyone trapped inside surviving for long.

Among the six confirmed dead were three students, one teacher and one crew member. One was unidentified.

The initial distress signal from the Sewol came at 9:00am Wednesday, and many of the survivors were picked up by small commercial vessels that got to the scene ahead of the navy and coastguard.

Television footage showed terrified passengers wearing life jackets clambering into inflatable boats that pushed right up to the rails of the listing vessel as it sank.

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