South Korea's coastguard said Wednesday one person had
been killed as it struggled to rescue 476 people -- mostly high school
students -- aboard a ferry that ran aground and sank off the southern
coast.
Lee Gyeong-Og, the vice minister of security and public
administration, told a press briefing in Seoul that he could only
confirm the rescue of 161 people so far.
However, he added that commercial ships involved in the operation
were understood to have rescued a significant number of people.
"The ferry is almost completely submerged," Lee said, adding that a
detachment of South Korean Navy SEALS were taking part in the rescue.
Lee had said there were no reports of casualties so far, but the coastguard later said one person had been killed.
Photos broadcast on television showed the ship initially tilted over
45 degrees on the port side with helicopters flying overhead, and then
fully capsized with only its stern visible.
- Of the 450 passengers on board the ferry bound for the southern resort island of Jeju, 325 were students from a high school in Ansan, south of Seoul. The remainder of those on board were crew.
- Coastguard officials said the crew sent out a distress signal at 9:00 am (0000 GMT) with passenger testimony suggesting it may have run aground.
- "We heard a big thumping sound and the boat stopped," one passenger told the YTN news channel by telephone.
The 6,825-tonne ferry, which had sailed out of the western port of
Incheon on Tuesday evening, ran into trouble some 20 kilometres (13
miles) off the island of Byungpoong. Distraught parents of the students gathered at the high school in Ansan, desperate for news.
TV footage showed a chaotic scene in the school's auditorium, with
parents yelling at school officials and frantically trying to make phone
calls to their children.
Source: AFP
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