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JINDO, South Korea (AP) — There's been another display of anger and desperation from relatives of the more than 130 people still missing from the sinking of a South Korean ferry.
They surrounded the country's fisheries minister and the coast guard chief today, preventing them from leaving the area where families have been waiting for word of their loved ones for more than a week.
More than 170 bodies have now been recovered.
Some of the family members accused officials of lying about the recovery operation. They demanded that the search continue through the night. And they asked why hundreds of civilian divers haven't been allowed to join coast guard and navy personnel in searching for bodies.
The coast guard chief said, "We are trying to bring all the equipment that we can."
A spokesman for the government-wide emergency task force says about 700 divers are working at the scene. He says civilian divers who've joined the search have only slowed down that effort.
%@AP Links
045-c-12-(Foster Klug, AP correspondent)-"their loved ones"-AP correspondent Foster Klug reports relatives want authorities to speed up their search. (24 Apr 2014)
<<CUT *045 (04/24/14)££ 00:12 "their loved ones"
044-c-11-(Foster Klug, AP correspondent)-"there're flower memorials"-AP correspondent Foster Klug reports most of those on the ship were from a single area of South Korea. (24 Apr 2014)
<<CUT *044 (04/24/14)££ 00:11 "there're flower memorials"
APPHOTO SEL809: Searchers and divers look for people believed to have been trapped in the sunken ferry Sewol near buoys which were installed to mark the vessel in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea, Thursday, April 24, 2014. Divers made their way deeper Thursday into the submerged wreck of a ferry that sank more than a week ago as the death toll continues to rise and relatives of the more than 140 still missing pressed the government to finish the grim task of recovery soon.(AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT (24 Apr 2014)
<<APPHOTO SEL809 (04/24/14)££
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