PM sympathises with S Korea

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed her condolences for the missing and dead – an overwhelming number of them schoolchildren - in the South Korean ferry tragedy, offering to assist in rescue operations.

The foreign ministry on Thursday said the Premier expressed her “deep sadness”.

“I find it impossible to fathom the grief of the parents and the relatives of those children and others whose lives were lost in the tragedy”, she said in a message sent to Korean President Park Geun-hye.

She prayed for the departed souls and for the strength of the families coping with the grief.

The foreign ministry said the Prime Minister also wished the “success” of the rescue operations and expressed her readiness to provide assistance.

An overloaded ferry with hundreds of children on board sank off the Korean coast on Apr 16.

Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers from the school in Ansan, a suburb on the outskirts of Seoul, who were on an outing to the resort of Jeju.

More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers from the Danwon High School, are feared dead with the survival chances of the missing receding even as rescue operations are on.