Divers have begun to recover bodies from inside the ferry that sank off South Korea, pushing the confirmed death toll past 50, officials said on Sunday.
After more than three days of frustration and failure, divers finally found a way into the ferry, discovering more than a dozen bodies inside the ship.
About 250 people are still missing, most of them high school students on a holiday trip, and anguished families are furious with the pace of rescue efforts.
Divers had previously failed to enter the ferry, officials said, because of extremely strong currents and bad visibility due to poor weather. They have yet to find any survivors in the ship.
Beginning late on Saturday, when divers broke a window, and continuing into Sunday, multiple teams of divers have found various routes into the ferry, discovering bodies in different spots, coast guard official Koh Myung-seok said at a briefing. Thirteen bodies had been found in the ship, and six others were found floating outside, bringing the confirmed total to 52, said coastguard official Kim Jin-cheol.
A 21-year-old South Korean sailor also died from injuries he sustained on Wednesday while working on a warship going to help rescue the ferry passengers, the South Korean navy said.
On an island near the submerged ferry, about 200 police blocked about 100 relatives of missing passengers who had been walking on a main road in an effort, they said, to travel to the presidential Blue House in Seoul to voice their complaints to the president.
"The government is the killer," they shouted as they pushed against a police barricade.
"We want an answer from the person in charge about why orders are not going through and nothing is being done," Lee Woon-geun, father of missing passenger Lee Jung-in, 17, said. "They are clearly lying and kicking the responsibility to others."
More than 300 people are missing or dead, and the captain of the ferry has been arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need.
Two crew members have also been taken into custody, including a rookie third mate who a prosecutor said was steering in challenging waters unfamiliar to her when the accident occurred.
The ferry's captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, was arrested along with one of the Sewol's three helmsmen and the 25-year-old third mate, prosecutors said.
"I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims," Lee told reporters on Saturday morning as he left the Mokpo branch of Gwangju district court to be jailed.
Senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin told reporters the third mate was steering the ship on Wednesday morning as it passed through an area with lots of islands clustered close together and fast currents. According to investigators, the accident came at a point where the ship had to make a turn.
Prosecutor Park Jae-eok said investigators were looking at whether the third mate ordered a turn so sharp that it caused the vessel to list.
Yang said the third mate had six months of experience, and had not steered in the area before because another mate usually handled those duties. She took the wheel this time because heavy fog caused a departure delay, Yang said, adding that investigators did not know whether the ship was going faster than usual.
Helmsman Park Kyung-nam identified the third mate as Park Han-kyul.
The helmsman who was arrested, 55-year-old Cho Joon-ki, spoke to reporters outside court and accepted some responsibility.
"There was a mistake on my part as well, but the steering had been turned much more than usual," Cho said.
Lee has four decades of experience at sea. He had been captaining ferries for 10 years by the time he was interviewed by the Jeju Today website in 2004, and said he had sailed on ocean freighters for 20 years before that.
But he was not the Sewol's main captain, and worked on the ship about 10 days a month, helmsman Oh Yong-seok said.
Lee was not on the bridge when the ship began to list. "I gave instructions on the route, then briefly went to the bedroom when it happened," he told reporters.
According to the court, Lee faces five charges, including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law. Two other crew members each face three related charges.
Lee was required by law to be on the bridge helping his crew when the ferry passed through tricky navigational areas, Yang said.
Yang said Lee also abandoned people in need of help and rescue, saying, "The captain escaped before the passengers."
Video aired by Yonhap news agency showed Lee among the first people to reach the shore by rescue boat.
Yang said the two crew members arrested failed to reduce speed near the islands and failed to carry out necessary measures to save lives.
It was not clear why the two crew members made the sharp turn, Yang said.
He said prosecutors would continue to look into whether something other than the turn could have made the ferry sink, but said there were no strong waves that could have knocked down the ferry at the time.
Prosecutors will have 10 days to decide whether to indict the captain and crew, but can request a 10-day extension from the court.
On Saturday angry relatives of missing passengers expressed outrage at officials who were holding a briefing on the disaster in a gymnasium on Jindo island, where hundreds of family members are waiting for word about their loved ones. A few dozen relatives surged toward the stage, hurling questions at the officials. One man tried to choke a coastguard lieutenant and punch a maritime policeman.
"The government should have hurried up and done something, but they just wasted four days, which led to this point. I think this is more like a man-made disaster," said Lee Jong-eui, a businessman whose 17-year-old nephew, Nam Hyun-chul, is among the missing.
Three vessels with cranes are at the accident site to prepare to salvage the ferry, but they will not hoist the ship before getting approval from family members of those still believed inside, because the lifting could endanger any survivors, said a coastguard officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sunday 20 April 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/20/south-korea-ferry-divers-recover-10-more-bodies
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