Storm stops hunt for ship bodies

A police officer holds up an umbrella for a relative of a passenger aboard the sunken ferry Sewol. Photo / AP

The operation to recover bodies from the ferry that sank off South Korea last month has been suspended because of heavy seas amid concern many of the missing may never be found.

Seventeen days after the 6825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank, 228 people have been confirmed dead with 74 unaccounted for.

"Divers were unable to dive late Friday and early today due to fast currents and high waves whipped up by gusty winds," said Coastguard spokesman Ko Myung-suk.

More than 100 divers were on standby, waiting for the waves to die down, he said.

Dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions.

They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, on its side on the seabed at a depth of 40m.

They have to struggle through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.

Park Seung-ki, spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30km from the disaster site on Friday.

As days go by, personal belongings and debris from the ship have been spotted further and further away, fuelling concerns that strong currents may have swept some bodies into the open sea. As a precaution, recovery workers put rings of netting around the site days ago.

The relatives of those still missing are insisting that all the bodies be recovered before efforts begin to raise the sunken ferry.

The Sewol capsized on April 16 with 476 people on board - more than 300 of them from the same Danwon High School in Ansan city, just south of Seoul.

Public anger and frustration has been amplified through greed and irresponsibility being blamed for the poor handling of the catastrophe.

The captain and 14 of his crew have been arrested.

- AAP