(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) oul April 24 - With the death toll from the sunken South Korean ferry surpassing the number of those still missing eight days after the disaster divers on Thursday continued their grueling task of retrieving more bodies on the last remaining day of low tide. The government emergency task force said it has dispatched the largest number of Coast Guard Navy and civilian workers to search the inside of the 6825-ton Sewol that capsized and sank in southwestern waters last Wednesday. The confirmed death toll rose to 162 but 140 others were still unaccounted for. The missing most of whom were high school students on a school trip are believed to be trapped inside the fourth floor of the upturned vessel in waters off Jindo Island. Of the 476 people on board only 174 passengers including the ferry's captain and most of its crew were rescued South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap) reported. The number of corpses retrieved from the submerged vessel has risen sharply since the weekend as weather condition turned favorable though divers still battled low underwater visibility to find those missing. As high tide and rain are expected from Friday relatives with diminishing hopes of finding more survivors pressured the government to finish the search by Thursday because no one has been found alive since the ship's sinking. Weather in the area was forecast to be mild with waves expected to reach around 0.5 meter and wind blowing at a speed of 4 meters to 7 meters per second. The rescue crew last week positioned three large cranes near the scene but the task force said it will lift the capsized ship from the sea only with the consent of all families of the missing. As the search operation continued round-the-clock in the past few days divers are increasingly suffering exhaustion with some of them treated for decompression sickness after swimming in cold dark waters for long hours. The government said it will prepare safety measures for rescue workers who navigate the murky water through the ferry's corridors and cabins in a grim operation that turned from searching survivors to retrieving dead bodies. As the fruitless search for survivors entered its second week families who have yet to find bodies of their loved ones expressed deep frustration as others who have found the corpses left the gym where they had been staying at.
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