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S Korean divers find grisly signs of desperate bids to escape

SEOUL — South Korean divers swam though dark, cold waters into a sunken ferry yesterday, feeling for children’s bodies with their hands in a maze of cabins, corridors and upturned decks as they searched for hundreds of missing.

The divers, with oxygen and communication lines trailing, can see only a few inches in front of them as they feel for bodies in a maze of cabins and corridors underwater . Photo: AP

The divers, with oxygen and communication lines trailing, can see only a few inches in front of them as they feel for bodies in a maze of cabins and corridors underwater . Photo: AP

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SEOUL — South Korean divers swam though dark, cold waters into a sunken ferry yesterday, feeling for children’s bodies with their hands in a maze of cabins, corridors and upturned decks as they searched for hundreds of missing.

The divers, with oxygen and communications lines trailing, can see only a few inches in front of them in the wreckage of the ship, which started sinking a week ago after a sharp turn. Most of the victims were high school students, who were told to stay where they were for their own safety.

Most of the bodies found in the last two days had broken fingers, presumably from the children frantically trying to climb the walls or floors to escape in their last moments, media said.

“We are trained for hostile environments, but it’s hard to be brave when we meet bodies in dark water,” diver Hwang Dae-sik told Reuters, as the funerals of 25 students were held near Seoul. Mr Hwang said his team had retrieved 14 bodies so far.

Prosecutors investigating the disaster raided the home of Mr Yoo Byung-un, the head of a family that owns Chonghaejin Marine, which operated the Sewol ferry. They also raided his son’s home and the office of a church with which Mr Yoo has been associated, a prosecutor said. Mr Yoo was jailed for fraud for four years in the early ’90s.

At the site of the sunken Sewol, divers are able to work for nearly an hour at a time as long as the oxygen lines do not snag on sharp corners of the ship’s internal structure. When they use cumbersome oxygen tanks on their backs, they can work for about 20 minutes before an alarm bell sounds.

The Sewol sank last Wednesday on a routine trip from the port of Incheon to the southern island of Jeju.

Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing. Only 174 people have been rescued and the remainder are presumed to have drowned.

The confirmed death toll yesterday was 156, many found at the back of the ship on the fourth deck.

In a rare move, the disaster prompted reclusive North Korea, which routinely threatens the South with destruction, to send a message of sympathy. The two sides are still technically at war after the 1950-53 civil conflict ended in a mere truce.

“We express condolences for the missing and dead, including young students, from the sinking of the Sewol,” a South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman quoted the message as saying.

The South Korean authorities have arrested four more crew members, bringing the total number detained to 11. Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, and other crew members have been arrested on negligence charges. Lee was also charged with undertaking an “excessive change of course without slowing down”.

The captain and several crew members left the ferry as it was sinking, witnesses have said, after passengers were told to stay in their cabins, even though it was time for breakfast. President Park Geun-hye said on Monday that instruction was tantamount to an “act of murder”. Lee was not on the bridge when the ship turned. Navigation was in the hands of a 26-year-old third mate, who was in charge for the first time on that part of the journey.

The authorities are now preparing to lift the ferry to the surface but they cannot do that until all the families agree — and for some of those who have yet to recover the bodies of their children, this is still a difficult decision to make, the BBC reported. AGENCIES

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