Morning Brief: Hundreds Missing After Ferry Capsizes, Sinks off South Korea

From Foreign Policy Wed Apr 16 2014, 12:49:45

Hundreds Missing After Ferry Capsizes, Sinks off South Korea

Top news: Nearly 300 people, most of them high school students, are missing after a ferry en route to the resort island of Jeju sank off the southwestern coast of South Korea. At least three people are confirmed to have died.

The ship listed sharply and capsized after what survivors described as a loud bang. Its passengers included more than 300 students on a field trip from a high school outside Seoul. A frantic search and rescue operation is underway as desperate parents have gathered at their children's school awaiting answers as to their children's fate. Some 160 navy and coast guard divers are searching the wreckage, though Korean officials have cautioned that their efforts have been hampered by strong currents and poor visibility. 

"We must not give up," President Park Geun-hye said. "We must do our best to rescue even one of those passengers and students who may not have escaped from the ship."

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