SOUTH KOREAN FERRY DISASTER - RESCUE WORKERS TOLD PASSENGERS (MOSTLY CHILDREN) TO STAY PUT EVEN WHEN 95% OF VESSEL WAS SUBMERGED - Those who obeyed instructions perished - Hundreds unaccounted for

Survivors, who were taken to safety described how the emergency services told them to stay on the ship, despite the fact 95 per cent of it had submerged.

 

Cha Eun-ok, who was on deck of the ferry taking photographs when the disaster began, said: 'The on-board announcement told people to stay put ... people who stayed are trapped.'

There are more than 300 passengers unaccounted for.  A huge search operation is still underway off the coast of South Korea as rescuers continued looking for 300 passengers missing after a ferry carrying mostly schoolchildren sank.

 

At least four people have died, but officials fear the number of casualties could rise 'drastically' with hundreds still trapped inside the submerged vessel.   As night fell, emergency services claimed they had saved 164 people from the boat, which had 470 people on board.

 

Dozens of fishing vessels, helicopters and divers desperately scrambled to rescue people on the 6,825-ton ferry in what emergency services are calling the country's biggest peacetime disaster in 20 years.

 

The boat  was sailing to the southern island of Jeju when it sent a distress call Wednesday morning after it began leaning to one side, according to the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.

 

Coastguard footage showed the vessel submerged with only its bow visible 12 miles from Byeongpoong island off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula. The government said about 95 per cent of the ship was submerged.

 

Read more and see pictures of survivors and sinking vessel
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2605734/South-Korean-sinking-ship-One-dead-338-terrified-high-school-students-rescued.html

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