Students at Danwon High School hold letters for students of the school who are among the missing passengers of a South Korean capsized ferry, in Ansan on April 17, 2014. Rescuers worked frantically on April 17 to find around 300 people - mostly schoolchildren - missing after a South Korean ferry capsized, with prospects of pulling survivors from the submerged vessel dimming as emotions boiled over among anguished relatives. AFP PHOTO / Truth LEEM
The newly recovered bodies were all floating in the water, coastguard officials said, as the dive teams worked in shifts to find a way inside the submerged vessel in the increasingly slim hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.
Of the 452 people on board the Sewol when it capsized Wednesday morning, 179 were rescued, but no new survivors have been found since Wednesday.
The captain was not at the helm of the South Korean ferry that capsized two days ago, investigators said Friday, as anger spread over stalled rescue efforts for hundreds of missing passengers trapped by the submerged vessel.
More than 48 hours after the 6,825-tonne Sewol suddenly listed and then sank, a small of army of more than 500 exhausted divers - battling powerful currents in almost zero visibility - have yet to obtain any access to the ferry's interior.
