Doomed South Korea ferry's first distress call came from a young boy

Getty Images/CHUNG SUNG-JUN

Doomed South Korea ferry's first distress call came from a young boy
(Image credit: Getty Images/CHUNG SUNG-JUN)

The first distress call made from the doomed South Korean ferry that sunk last week didn't come from the ship's crew, but rather from a frightened boy on board. The call came three minutes after the ship made its deadly final turn, fire officials told Reuters. Nearly two dozen calls from scared passengers started pouring in just moments later.

"Save us! We're on a ship and I think it's sinking," the boy, who is among the 200 still missing, said. A fire official asked him to give the phone to the captain, to which he replied: "Do you mean teacher?" Both words sound similar in Korean.

The ferry sank last Wednesday on a trip between Incheon and the resort island of Jeju. Of the 476 passengers on board, only 174 have been rescued and 108 are confirmed dead. The remainder are "all presumed to have drowned" at this point.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.