S Korea ferry disaster toll crosses 100

The confirmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster crossed 100 on Tuesday, as dive teams, under growing pressure from bereaved relatives, accelerated the grim task of recovering hundreds more bodies from the submerged ship. Improved weather conditions and calm seas spurred their efforts, but underwater visibility was still very poor, requiring divers to grope their way blindly though the corridors and cabins of Sewol- the vessel that capsized and sank in the sea near Jindo last Wednesday. Nearly one week into the rescue and recovery effort of one of S Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, close to 200 of the 476 people who were aboard the 6,825-tonne ship – most of them schoolchildren – are still unaccounted for. The official toll provided by the coastguard Tuesday morning stood at 104, with 198 still missing, according to AFP.