(19 Apr 2014) South Korean divers on Saturday continued to search for survivors from a capsized ship that sank off the country's southern coast.
More than 270 people were still missing and at least 29 people have been found dead, following Wednesday's incident.
Bad weather conditions made it difficult for the divers to get inside the ferry on previous occasions.
Most of the divers who left from the Paengmok Port on Saturday morning, which is closest to the ferry's sinking site, to continue their search, were volunteers from rescue units from across the country.
All of them wanted to bring relief to the families of the missing passengers and were willing to jump into murky waters of the East China Sea and battle with strong currents to attempt getting inside the sunken vessel.
Chief of the Disaster Rescue Team from the city of Hwaseong Cho Bae-geun said that despite difficult conditions the divers were happy to help.
"We are not doing this expecting something back, but we do it because we would be grateful that we could have helped," he said.
Another volunteer pointed out, that given the bad conditions, the government should have provided more equipment for the divers to enable them to access the stricken ship.
According to the South Korean government, more than 500 divers were participating in the rescue operation.
On Friday, the coast guard said divers began pumping air into the ship to try to sustain any survivors.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
