Death toll reaches 181 in South Korean ferry disaster

Death toll in the sunken South Korean ferry continued to riseto 181 on Friday as divers kept searching bodies, or possible survivors, inside thesubmerged vessel.On the tenth day since the ferry carrying 476 people capsized off the country’ssouthwestern coast on April 16, seven more bodies were recovered from the ship, raising the death toll to 181, with 121 still missing.The number of the rescued has been unchanged at 174 since the first day of thedeadly incident.The government-wide disaster response headquarters said at a press briefing that88 divers will search passenger cabins on the third and fourth floors of the five-story vessel. Only 10 divers can trace guideline ropes into the submerged vessel at atime because 5 ropes are being snaked into the ship.Rescue experts from the United States, the Netherlands, Britain and Japan have beenproviding counseling on the rescue operations, the headquarters said.