SOUTH KOREA FERRY SINKS LEAVING AT LEAST 4 PEOPLE DEAD AND 300 MISSING.....
Mail Online - Sarah Dean. Wills Robinson and Sam Webb
'We were told to stay put': Passengers describe how rescue workers told them to remain on sinking ferry off South Korea leaving at least four dead and 300 unaccounted for
- Dozens of boats, helicopters and divers are trying to rescue hundreds of passengers who are unaccounted for
- Officials say 164 people have been rescued so far, but the coastguard fear the number of casualties could rise
- More than 300 people on board were high school students who were on a trip at the time
- Ferry was sailing to the southern island of Jeju when it sent a distress call around after it began leaning to one side
- The government said about 95 per cent of the ship was submerged when the rescue operation began
- A 27-year-old woman named Park Ji-yeong and high school student Jeong Cha Woong are among the dead
- Passenger, who was rescued from the ferry, says those who were told to stay were 'still trapped'
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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.
Survivors, who were taken to safety on nearby Jindo Island, described how the emergency services told them to stay on the ship, despite the fact 95 per cent of it had submerged.
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