South Korean rescue teams take part in recovery operations at the site of the sunken 'Sewol' ferry, marked with buoys, off the coast of the South Korean island of Jindo on April 23, 2014.
Seoul:
The operation to recover bodies from the ferry that sank off South Korea last month has been suspended due to heavy seas, a spokesman said Saturday, amid concern that many of the missing may never be found.
Seventeen days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank, 228 people have been confirmed dead with 74 still unaccounted for.
"Divers were unable to dive late Friday and early today due to fast currents and high waves whipped up by gusty winds", Coastguard spokesman Ko Myung-Suk told journalists.
More than 100 divers were on standby, waiting for the waves to die down, he said.
Dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions.
They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, laying on its side on the seabed at a depth of 40 metres (132 feet).
They have to struggle through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.
Park Seung-Ki, spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30 kilometres (around 20 miles) from the disaster site on Friday.
Seventeen days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank, 228 people have been confirmed dead with 74 still unaccounted for.
"Divers were unable to dive late Friday and early today due to fast currents and high waves whipped up by gusty winds", Coastguard spokesman Ko Myung-Suk told journalists.
More than 100 divers were on standby, waiting for the waves to die down, he said.
Dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions.
They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, laying on its side on the seabed at a depth of 40 metres (132 feet).
They have to struggle through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.
Park Seung-Ki, spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30 kilometres (around 20 miles) from the disaster site on Friday.
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