South Korean Divers Break Down Cabin Walls To Retrieve Ferry Victims' Bodies

Divers Break Down Cabin Walls To Retrieve Ferry Victims' Bodies

Search teams are breaking down the walls of the cabins in the now underwater cabins of the capsized South Korean ferry to retrieve more bodies of the deceased.

Task force spokesman Koh Myung-seok told reporters today that the recovery work off the country's southern coast near Jindo is becoming more difficult.

"The lounge is one big open space, so once in it we got our search done straight away. But in the case of the cabins, we will have to break down the walls in between because they are all compartments," Koh said.

Divers look for people believed to have been trapped in the sunken ferry Sewol in the water off the southern coast near Jindo

Around 152 people are still missing from the ferry, with 150 confirmed dead. Four more crew members from the ferry that sank last week have been detained by authorities, bringing the total number of arrests to 11. out of 29 crew members, 29 survived the disaster.

On Wednesday, a memorial service took place outside the school in Seoul which many of the victims, mostly teenagers on a school trip, attended.

Authorities have issued 30-day travel bans to more than 70 executives connected with the ferry compant Chonghaejin and authorities will make "efforts to retrieve profits made out of criminal acts and track down hidden assets to support financial compensations for lawsuits by families of the victims and the missing," a prosecutor told AFP.

Passengers are believed to have been told to remain in their cabins as the ship listed, with about 20 other emergency calls from children on board the ship, the BBC reported.

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