Sunk South Korea
naval ship Cheonan 'split in half'
The
force of Friday's mysterious explosion which sunk a South Korean naval ship
appears to have split the vessel's hull in two, officials say.
The
two halves are lying on the sea bed but bad weather has prevented military
divers from reaching the wreckage.
Forty-six
sailors are missing and rescue workers say it is unlikely that anyone could
have survived three days in the near-freezing water.
The
cause of the explosion on the 1,200-tonne Cheonan
remains unclear.
The
BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says several possibilities have been
suggested:
n
an accidental onboard explosion
n
a blast caused by
hitting rocks or sea mines
n
or a deliberate
outside attack.
The
naval patrol vessel sank near the disputed maritime border with North Korea
but military officials say there is no indication the North was involved.
Fifty-eight
sailors, including the captain, were rescued from one of the South's worst sea
disasters.
Some
rescue-workers say it is still possible that some people could have survived in
air-pockets inside the ship, although the water in the Yellow
Sea is about 4C.
After
visiting the disaster site, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said: "The
vessel appeared to have been split into half," reports South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Although
the waters are fairly shallow, the exact location of the wreckage has not yet
been located, according to defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae.
Navy
and coast guard vessels, as well as air force planes, are still scouring the
area near South Korea's Baeknyeong
Island.
A
group of 80 family members have sailed around the crash site and watched the
rescue efforts, the AP news agency reports.
But
some relatives are accusing the navy of a cover-up, saying the ship was in need
of repair.
'Save me'
Earlier,
the ship's rescued captain has been recounting what happened.
"There
was the sound of an explosion and the ship keeled to the right. We lost power
and telecommunications," Yonhap quoted Choi Won-il
as saying.
"I
was trapped in the cabin for five minutes before my colleagues broke the window
in and let me out. When I got out, the stern had disappeared."
A
number of the crew jumped into the water, Yonhap
said.
"Yells
and screams filled the air," witness Kim Jin-ho, a seaman who was on a
local passenger ship bound for Baeknyeong, told cable
news channel YTN.
"Marines
on deck were desperately shouting: 'Save me!"'
South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency
meeting of security officials and said all possible causes for the sinking
would be investigated.
He
ordered the military to focus on rescuing the sailors.
There
were initial reports that another South Korean ship had fired shots toward an unidentified vessel, but officials later speculated the
target had been a flock of birds.
The
incident comes at a time of tension between the two Koreas. International talks aimed
at ending the communist North's nuclear ambitions have been stalled for months.
North
and South Korea
are still in a official state of war because the
1950-53 Korean War ended only in a truce.
Since
then, they have fought three bloody skirmishes in the Yellow
Sea.
In
January, North Korea
fired about 30 artillery shells not far from Baeknyeong.
South Korea
fired 100 warning shots in response, but no injuries were reported.
South Korea recognises the Northern Limit Line, drawn unilaterally by
the US-led United Nations Command to demarcate the sea border at the end of the
Korean War. The line has never been accepted by North Korea.
Source:
BBC World News