Hundreds still missing after deadly South Korea ferry disaster

A ferry carrying 459 people, mostly high school students, sank off South Korea's southern coast on Wednesday, leaving nearly 300 people missing despite a frantic, hours-long search-and-rescue operation. At least nine people have so far been confirmed dead and 55 injured.

The high number of people unaccounted for — likely 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 since 1993, when 292 people were killed.

Kang Byung-kyu, a government minister, said the dead included a female crew member, four high school students and one teacher.

Kang said 164 people were rescued, of whom 55 were injured; 290 people were still unaccounted for.

Lee Gyeong-og, a vice minister for the country’s Public Administration and Security Ministry, said 30 crew members, 325 high school students, 15 schoolteachers and 89 other passengers were aboard the ship.

The students are from a high school in Ansan city near Seoul and were on their way from Incheon to the southern island of Jeju for a four-day trip, according to a relief team set up by Gyeonggi province, which governs their home city.

Local television stations broadcast live pictures of the ship, the Sewol, listing to its side and slowly sinking as passengers jumped out or were winched up by helicopters.

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 stuck out of the water, and very soon that, too, disappeared. The U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet has sent a ship with helicopters on board to join the search-and-rescue operation.

Some 160 coast guard and navy divers searched for survivors inside the ship's wreckage a few miles from Byeongpung Island, which is not far from the mainland.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the 480-foot-long ship, which travels twice a week between Incheon and Jeju, was built in Japan in 1994 and could carry a maximum of 921 people, 180 vehicles and 152 shipping containers.

The water temperature in the area was about 54 degrees Fahrenheit, cold enough to cause signs of hypothermia after about one and a half hours of exposure, according to an emergency official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Officials said mud on the ocean floor made underwater search operations difficult. 

South Korean media, including Yonhap, reported that passengers were asked to jump overboard with life vests as the ship was on the verge of sinking.

One student, Lim Hyung-min, told South Korean broadcaster YTN that he and other students jumped into the ocean wearing life jackets and then swam to a nearby rescue boat.

"As the ferry was shaking and tilting, we all tripped and bumped into each another," Lim said, adding that some people were bleeding. Once he jumped, the ocean "was so cold ... I was hurrying, thinking that I wanted to live."

Passenger Kim Seong-mok, speaking from a nearby island after his rescue, told YTN he was "certain" that many people were trapped inside the ferry as water quickly rushed in and the severe tilt of the vessel kept them from reaching the exits. Some people urged those who couldn't get out of the ferry to break windows.

Kim said that after having breakfast he felt the ferry tilt and then heard it crash into something. He said the ferry operator made an announcement asking that passengers wait and not move from their places. Kim said he didn't hear any announcement telling passengers to escape.

Heavy fog had set in overnight in the area, leading to cancellations of many passenger ferry services to islands. However, news reports said visibility in the area was fair.

Al Jazeera and wire services