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JINDO. — Divers finally began pulling bodies yesterday from the South Korean ferry that sank four days ago with hundreds of children on board, as families angry at the pace and focus of rescue efforts scuffled with police.
Coastguard officials said 19 bodies had been removed from the ship which sank on Wednesday morning, pushing operations further along the painful transition from rescue to recovery and identification.
The confirmed death toll from the disaster stood at 58 with 244 people still unaccounted for.
Three bodies were pulled out of the fully submerged ferry just before midnight and another 16 were recovered yesterday, a coastguard spokesman said.
It was a key moment for distraught relatives, who have clung desperately to the hope that some passengers may have survived in air pockets in the upturned vessel. The bodies were placed in tents at the harbour on Jindo island – not far from the disaster site – where the relatives have been camped out in a gymnasium since the ferry went down.
In a process that looks set to be repeated with tragic frequency in coming days, they were checked for IDs and other particulars, after which their relatives were informed and asked to make an official identification. Some of the policemen standing guard at the tents were openly weeping, while the cries of the family members could be heard from inside.
Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 350 were high school students headed for the holiday island of Jeju. – AFP.
Online Reporter