South Korea: All 267 passengers and crew rescued from ferry that ran aground, says coastguard
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More than 250 passengers on board a ferry that ran aground off the South Korean coast have been rescued, according to the coastguard.
It said the Queen Jenuvia 2, travelling from the southern island of Jeju to the southwestern port city of Mokpo, hit rocks near Jindo, off the country’s southwest coast, late on Wednesday.
A total of 267 people were on board, including 246 passengers and 21 crew. Three people had minor injuries.
Videos were published showing passengers wearing life vests waiting to be picked up by rescue boats, which were approaching the 26,000-tonne South Korean ferry.
Its bow seemed to have become stuck on the edge of a small island, but it appeared to be upright and the passengers seemed calm.
Weather conditions at the scene were reported to be fair with light winds.
South Korea’s Prime Minister Kim Min-seok ordered all available boats and equipment to be used to rescue those on board, his office said.
The coastguard received a report of the incident late on Wednesday, and immediately deployed 20 vessels and a plane to join the rescue effort.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the vessel to run aground.
The vessel can carry up to 1,010 passengers and has multiple lower decks for large vehicles and passenger vehicles, according to its operator Seaworld Ferry.
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More than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren heading to Jeju on a school trip, died when the Sewol ferry sank in 2014, one of the country’s worst disasters.
The ship went down near the site of Wednesday’s incident, though further off Jindo.
After taking a turn too fast, the overloaded and illegally-modified ferry began listing 11 years ago.
It then lay on its side as passengers waited for rescue, which was slow to come, before sinking as the country watched on live television.
Many of the victims were found in their cabins, where they had been told to wait by crew while the captain and some crew members were taken aboard the first coast guard vessels to arrive at the scene.
