S Korea ferry survivor 'haunted' by memory of trapped students

A survivor of South Korea's ferry disaster has described taking the agonising decision to save himself as the ship capsized and water washed away students he was trying to rescue.

Lorry driver Eun-su Choi told the BBC: "We were trying to pull them up... but it was very difficult. We then decided to climb up, but I now regret it."

The confirmed death toll has reached 150, as divers recovered more bodies from the sunken hull of the Sewol.

Another 152 people are still missing.

The ship's crew have been accused of failing to evacuate passengers, with the captain and several other crew members charged with negligence.

A total of 174 passengers were rescued from the Sewol, which capsized as it sailed from Incheon in the north-west to the southern island of Jeju.

Of the 476 people on board, some 339 were children and teachers on a school trip. Many were trapped inside the ship as it listed and then sank within two hours of distress signals being sent.

On Wednesday prosecutors raided companies linked to ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Company as part of the ongoing investigation into the disaster.

Eun-su Choi had made the ferry journey hundreds of times. He had just had breakfast and gone up on the deck to smoke when disaster struck.

"All of a sudden the ship tilted and started to sink. Containers started to fall off into the sea, and I realised we were going to capsize.

"I was clinging on to the handrail. I tried to save some of the students in the cafeteria. They were sliding around on their knees by the cashier's desk."

He added: "We were trying to pull them up with a fire hose, but it was very difficult to rescue them. We then decided to climb up, but I now regret it."

He said his friend managed to pull a six-year-old girl to safety after she was passed by her parents and other passengers, hand to hand.

He said the parents and passengers, who did not survive the ordeal, were "the bravest people of all".

All of the people he saw helping the girl were swept away by the water, he added.

Reports suggest that passengers were told to remain in their rooms and cabins as the ship listed, amid confusion on the bridge over whether to order them to abandon ship.

The first distress call from the sinking ferry was made from a mobile phone by a boy with a shaking voice, officials told Reuters.

It reported that his plea for help was followed by about 20 other emergency calls from children on board the ship.

A crew member quoted by local media said that attempts to launch lifeboats were unsuccessful because the ship was listing too severely. Only two of the vessel's 46 lifeboats were reported to have been deployed.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has condemned the conduct of some of the crew, calling it "akin to murder".

Divers are continuing to search the sunken hull for the bodies of those who died.

The authorities are now preparing to lift the ferry to the surface but they cannot do that until all the families agree - and for some of those who have yet to recover the bodies of their children, this is still a difficult decision to make, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head, in Jindo.

An underwater robot was unloaded at Jindo port on Tuesday morning, ready to help in the operation to bring the hull to the surface.

Investigations are focusing on whether the ferry took too sharp a turn - perhaps destabilising the vessel - before it started listing and whether an earlier evacuation order could have saved lives.

Captain Lee Joon-seok was not on the bridge when the ferry began listing. It was being steered by a third mate who had never navigated the waters where the accident occurred, prosecutors say.

There were up to 30 crew members on the stricken ship, reports say, and some seven of them are missing.