The frightened boy who first raised the alarm that a South Korean ferry with hundreds on board was sinking did not have time to call his parents, his father said, and was found dead not wearing a life jacket.
The boy, named Choi, called the emergency 119 number that put him through to the fire service, which in turn forwarded him to the coast guard two minutes later. That was followed by about 20 other calls from children to the emergency number, a fire service officer told Reuters.
The Sewol ferry sank on April 16 on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju.