South Korea ferry salvors find human remains: ministry

[SEOUL] Salvage workers who raised South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry may have found a body which had been missing since the disaster in 2014, the maritime ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said in a statement it would hold a briefing on "finding human remains suspected to be one of the missing victims".

The wreck was brought to the surface last week, nearly three years after it went down killing more than 300 people, and placed onto a semi-submersible ship that will finally bring it to shore.

Almost all the victims were schoolchildren and nine bodies were still unaccounted for, raising the prospect that they could be trapped inside the vessel.

The remains were recovered on board the semi-submersible carrying the ferry, Yonhap news agency said, without immediately giving further details or citing a source.

Yonhap said officials from the National Forensic Service as well as ministry officials and police have been dispatched to the site to identify the remains.

The 145-metre ship was brought to the surface in a complex salvage operation believed to be among the largest recoveries ever of a wreck in one piece.

AFP