JINDO, South Korea, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Death toll rose to 281 on Wednesday in one of South Korea's deadliest maritime disasters after five bodies were recovered from the sunken ferry.
The pan-government accident response center said in a statement that five bodies were retrieved from passages and passenger cabins of the submerged hull, raising the total death toll to 281.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 23 others still remained missing. No survivors have been reported since April 16 when the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized and sank off the country's southwestern coast.
The 476 passengers on board the ill-fated vessel included 325 Danwon High School students and 14 teachers on their way for a class trip.
A total of 125 divers searched passenger cabins on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the five-story ship, while 139 military ships, 36 airplanes and 42 civilian ships scoured the waters near the scene to find possible bodies swept away from the submerged vessel.
Related:
Search continues for missing in sunken S. Korean ferry, 276 dead
JINDO, South Korea, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Search continued Wednesday for the missing people in the sunken South Korean ferry, which capsized off the country's southwestern coast on April 16.
Koh Myung-seok, spokesman of the pan-government accident response center, told a press briefing that divers conducted underwater search for the missing from 1:30 a.m. local time but found no bodies from the submerged hull. Full story
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