More bodies found as South Korea ferry disaster death toll hits 52

The confirmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster rose past 50 yesterday as divers finally found a way inside the sunken vessel, quickly discovering more than a dozen bodies in what almost certainly is just the beginning of a massive and grim recovery effort.

About 250 people are still missing from the ship, the vast majority of them high school students who had been on a holiday trip. Anguished families, waiting on a nearby island and fearful they might be left without even their loved ones’ bodies, have vented their fury, blocking the prime minister’s car during a visit and attempting a long protest march to the presidential Blue House.

The ferry Sewol sank last Wednesday off South Korea’s southern coast, but it took days for divers to get in because of strong currents and bad visibility due to foul weather. Beginning late Saturday, when divers broke a window, and continuing into yesterday, multiple teams of divers have found various routes into the ferry, discovering bodies in different spots, coastguard official Koh Myung-seok said at a briefing.