Strong currents and poor visibility hampered rescuers in the search for 287 passengers still missing more than 24 hours after their ferry flipped on to its side and filled with cold water off the southern coast of South Korea.

Parents of hundreds of missing teenagers aboard the stricken ferry off the coast of South Korea hired rescue boats to join the search overnight as hopes of finding survivors faded.

A ferry carrying 459 people, mostly high school students, has sunk off South Korea, leaving at least three people dead and nearly 300 missing.