Four dead, about 300 missing in South Korea ferry disaster

Rescue operations for the missing people from a ferry incident in South Korea continue, with four people reported dead.

South Korean coast guard says almost three hundred people are still unaccounted for. That’s while over 150 survivors have been rescued.

The ferry carrying 462 people capsized off South Korea’s southern coast on Wednesday. At least four people were confirmed dead and 55 injured. The cause of the incident is still unknown.

Among the passengers, 325 were high school students who were traveling with several teachers to the resort island of Jeju for a four-day trip. There were around 20 crew members onboard as well.

The ferry sent out a distress signal at around 9:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday (0000 GMT) with passenger testimony suggesting it may have run aground.

One student, Lim Hyung-min, told broadcaster YTN after being rescued 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 they jumped into the ocean it “was so cold. …I was hurrying, thinking that I wanted to live,” another student said after being rescued.

Some 160 coast guard and Navy divers have searched for survivors inside the ship’s wreckage a few kilometers (miles) from Byeongpung Island.

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 died.