South Korean ferry captain Lee Jun-seok (right) is seen fleeing the sinking ship (left). Lee was one of the first people off the ferry. (NY Post)
The death toll from the sunken ship topped 121 today. Only 174 passengers, of the 476 on board, including the ferry’s captain and most of its crew, were rescued.
One child’s desperate call for help was released by Korean officials today.
FOX News reported:
A boy’s desperate call from aboard a doomed South Korean ferry captured the horror on the ship as it sank in the Yellow Sea last Wednesday, killing at least 104 and leaving hundreds more missing.
“Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking,” Yonhap news agency quoted the boy, who is among the hundreds missing, as saying. His phone call to emergency dispatchers, believed to be the first made from the ship, was initially routed to fire officials before being patched through to the coast guard some two minutes later.
Word of the plaintive call came as investigators said their earlier conclusion that the sunken ferry had made a sharp turn shortly before the disaster was incorrect, and that the vessel changed course much more gradually.
The fire service official asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy reportedly responded, “Do you mean teacher?” The pronunciation of the words for “captain” and “teacher” is similar in Korean, according to Reuters.