South Korea said today that two people
were killed and more than 100 missing after a ferry capsized at sea with 477 people on board. Most of the passengers were high school students bound for a holiday island.

Lee Gyeong-Og, the vice minister of security and public administration, told a press briefing in Seoul that 368 had been rescued So far.

Officials voiced fear that many may have been trapped as the vessel listed sharply and capsized within two hours of sending a distress signal.

Of the 477 people on board the ferry which had been bound for the popular southern resort island of Jeju, 324 were
students travelling with 14 teachers from a high school in Ansan, just south of Seoul.

The 6,825-tonne ferry, which had sailed out of the western port of Incheon on Tuesday evening, ran into trouble some 20 kilometres off the southern island of Byungpoong.