[Ferry Disaster] Death toll from sunken ferry rises to 287

One more body was recovered from the sunken ferry Sewol on Monday, raising the death toll to 287 and lowering the number of those missing to 17, more than a month after the ship sank off South Korea's southwest coast.

A joint team of government and civilian divers retrieved the body of a woman wearing a blue long-sleeved hooded shirt and khaki sweatpants from a kitchen on the third deck, officials said.

Search operations were halted earlier in the day after a wire connecting an anchor chain to a barge mobilized in the recovery efforts was found to be damaged.

The search resumed late in the afternoon after the wire was repaired.

The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank off the southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, carrying an estimated 476 people on board. Most of those dead or missing were students from a high school near Seoul on a school field trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.

The ferry, which departed from Incheon, west of Seoul, sank about two hours away from the resort island.

A period of weaker currents has raised hopes for progress in the search for the missing, but concerns have also grown that parts of the hull may collapse, officials said. (Yonhap)