Eyewitness: South Korea ferry disaster

Rescue boats from the South Korean coastguard scour the sea around the passenger ferry Sewol after it ran aground, capsized and sank with 477 people on board. The ship sent out a distress signal shortly before 9am local time, at a time when many passengers – most of them schoolchildren on a four-day study trip – were below decks. One witness said there was no call to abandon ship
Illustration: Photograph: Yonhap/EPA