S Korean ferry sinking: 'She is out there in the cold sea'

The pin-drop silence as a student's name was read out was broken by a piercing scream of anguished recognition. Her shattered parents clutched each other in the cold harbour-side gymnasium.

The announcement of the sixth confirmed victim from the sinking of a South Korean ferry carrying hundreds of high school students, followed a night-long vigil by relatives who had travelled to the southern island of Jindo to be near rescue efforts.

The gymnasium, where hundreds spent the night on the floor, looked more like a refugee camp or triage station, with some overwrought relatives on saline drips after collapsing from exhaustion.

Others huddled together in blankets, seeking comfort and exchanging what little information they had about the nearly 300 people still missing 24 hours after the ferry went down in sight of land, AFP reported.

One father wept silently, covering his face with his hands as his wife tried to console him.

Some like Ms Park Yu Shin, whose daughter is among the missing, had been able to stay in contact with their loved ones until the last moment.

Hope

Recalled Ms Park, her voice breaking: "She was telling me, 'We're putting on our life vests. They're telling us to wait and stay put, so we're waiting, mum. I can see a helicopter'."

Unable to sleep, some spent the night at the Jindo harbour quay, staring out to sea as if willing their children back to safety.

Said one anguished mother: "My daughter is out there, somewhere out there in the cold sea."

Another said: "My tears have dried up. I am holding on to hope. I hope the government does everything to bring these kids back to their mothers."

Even as some parents seemed to be losing hope of seeing their children alive again, there were others who were assured of their children's safety.

Several students seemed to have survived in an air pocket, the father of one of the students told Reuters.

"(My child) told me in the text message, 'I am alive, there are students alive, please save us quickly," the father said.

Anxiety

The father of one missing child could not bear to wait. He said he and 10 other parents paid 61,000 won (S$73) each to hire a boat to take them to the scene, along with a local reporter and a diver.

"There was no rescue operation going on," he said on his return to Jindo. "We clearly saw there is none. What they were doing at the time was stopping the oil spill. I'm extremely angry."

Amid the grief and anxiety, there was also growing anger and frustration, anger towards the heavy media presence which many found intrusive, and a reflexive anger with any official who turned up.

Even the president and prime minister were not spared.

President Park Geun Hye faced the angry parents yesterday, holding an impromptu and at times very tense meeting in the gymnasium. Ms Park's security detail looked decidedly nervous as emotions boiled over.

"What are you doing when people are dying! Time is running out!" one woman shouted as the president tried to speak.

When Prime Minister Chung Hong Won visited the gymnasium, his jacket was pulled and water as well as water bottles were thrown at him.

"How dare you come here with your chin up?" one relative screamed at him. "Would you respond like this if your own child was in that ship?"

One mother blocked Mr Chung's path as he tried to leave, crying: "Don't run away, Mr Prime Minister! Please tell us what you're planning to do."

This article was published on April 18 in The New Paper.

Get The New Paper for more stories.