Sewol trial: S'Korea coast guard was ill-equipped

South Korean coast guard officers say they did not have the right
training or equipment to rescue passengers from the stricken ferry,
Sewol,BBCreports.

The officers were speaking at the trial of the ship's crew members.

More than 300 passengers, most of them school children, died when the
Sewol sank in April, in South Korea's worst maritime disaster in
decades.

The accident sparked outrage, with the government and the ferry's crew
and owners facing the fiercest criticism.

The captain and 14 crew members are on trial for a range of charges
relating to the disaster. The captain and three others are accused of
the most serious crimes, of negligent homicide.

Defence lawyers for the captain have in turn accused the coast guard
of failing in their duty to rescue passengers.

In court on Tuesday in the southern city of Gwangju, the coast guard
officers spoke for the first time of what they encountered when they
reached the ship.

They said they had expected to find passengers waiting on the deck,
and were unaware that many were still trapped inside cabins that were
filling up with water.

An officer said he was ready to pull people from the water, but did
not have the equipment or the training to go inside the sinking ship.