South Korean ferry captain held

Jindo, South Korea: The arrested captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized three days ago with 476 people on board defended his decision to delay its evacuation, as divers on Saturday spotted bodies inside the submerged vessel.

Investigators arrested Lee Joon-Seok and two of his crew early on Saturday morning. All three have been criticised for abandoning hundreds of passengers trapped in the ferry, as they made their own escape. Mr Lee was charged with negligence and failing to secure the safety of passengers in violation of maritime law. Thirty-two people have been confirmed dead in the disaster, but 270 are still missing most of them children on a high school holiday trip.

As the arrests were being made, dive teams who had spent two days vainly battling powerful currents and near zero visibility, finally penetrated the passenger decks of the 6,825-tonne Sewol. “Civilian divers spotted three bodies through a window,” a senior coastguard officer said.

“They attempted to get in and retrieve them by cracking the window, but it was too difficult,” he said in a briefing to relatives of the missing.

Meanwhile, officials have said the recovery operation may take two months. Asked how long the rescue operation was likely to continue, Shin Won-Nam, the head of the Emergency Management Centre said, “According to experts, the rescue may last one or two months,” he said.