The silence as a South Korean student’s
name was announced was broken by a piercing scream of anguished recognition as
her shattered parents clung to each other in the cold, harbour gymnasium. The naming of the sixth confirmed victim from the sinking of a
South Korean ferry carrying hundreds of high school students came after a
night-long vigil for relatives who had travelled to the southern island of
Jindo to be near the rescue effort.
The gymnasium where hundreds spent the night on the floor looked
like a refugee camp or triage station, with some overwrought relatives being
treated with saline drips after collapsing with nervous exhaustion. Others huddled together in blankets, seeking some common comfort
and exchanging what little information they had about the nearly 300 people
still missing 24 hours after the ferry went down.
One father wept silently, covering his face with his hands as
his wife tried to console him.
Some like Park Yu-Shin,
whose student daughter is missing, had been able to stay in contact with their
loved ones until the last moment.
“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’,”
Ms Park recalled, her voice breaking with emotion.
Unable to sleep, some spent the night on the quay of Jindo
harbour, staring out to sea as if willing their children back to safety.
“My daughter is out there, somewhere out there in the cold sea,”
said one anguished mother.
Every time one of the many coastguard vessels involved in the
search returned to the harbour, there was a flurry of activity as relatives
jostled on the quayside, hoping for some fresh news.
Urging the rescue teams not to give up, some said they had
received recent text messages from their children trapped in the boat.
But their claims could not be verified and there was no official
confirmation of any contact with trapped survivors after the boat sank.
Amid the anxiety and grief there was also a growing sense of
anger and frustration.
Some of the anger was directed towards the media presence which
many found intrusive and there was also anger when officials appeared.
Many complained that the ferry should never have left the western
port of Incheon on Tuesday night because of the foggy conditions.
And there was outrage after survivors recounted how passengers
had initially been told to stay in their seats and cabins when the ferry ran
into trouble.
Angry
parents lash out at South Korean prime minister
When prime minister Chung Hong-Won visited the gymnasium early
Thursday, water and bottles were thrown at him and his jacket was pulled.
“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, saying:
“Don’t run away, Mr Prime Minister. Please tell us what you’re planning to do.”
Han Young-Hee, whose sister was on the ferry with her husband,
showed AFP the pictures the couple had texted her before the accident.
“This is her posing on the deck with a coffee. They were very
excited about their trip,” Ms Han said.
“That was early in the morning. There was nothing afterwards.
Nothing,” she said.
In the gymnasium, volunteers did what they could to comfort the
relatives, handing out blankets, instant noodles and coffee, while medical
staff tended to those in physical distress.
Small plastic tents were set up at the quay for those who
preferred to wait outside.
The desperation for fresh news was tempered only by the fear
that it would be the worst news, as was the case when a coastguard official
picked up the microphone to announce a sixth body had been recovered.
Then he named the victim and one set of parents’ hopes were
shattered forever.
Source -CNN
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