The confirmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster rose past 50 on Sunday as divers finally found a way inside the sunken 
vessel, quickly discovering more than a dozen bodies in what almost certainly is just the beginning of a massive and grim recovery effort.
About 250 people are still missing from the ship, which had been packed with high school students on a holiday trip, and anguished families are furious with the pace of rescue efforts.
The discovery came after rescuers finally gained access to the inside of the ship following three days of failure and frustration caused by strong currents and bad visibility due to inclement weather.
Two crew members also were taken into custody, including a rookie third mate who a prosecutor said was steering in challenging waters unfamiliar to her when the accident occurred.
Late Saturday, divers broke a window in the submerged ferry and initially retrieved three bodies, Kim Kwang-hyun, a coast guard official, said Sunday.
These apparently were the first bodies recovered from inside the ferry since it sank Wednesday.
Later Sunday, government officials announced that 10 more bodies had been found inside the ferry, pushing the confirmed toll to 46.
Officials said 256 people were missing, most of them high school students on a holiday trip.
Details about how divers managed to enter the ship and where the bodies were found or their identities weren’t clear.
Government officials said the bodies were found inside the ferry but didn’t immediately provide other details.
Hundreds of civilian, government and military divers were involved in the search.
The ferry’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, was arrested along with one of the Sewol’s three helmsmen and the 25-year-old third mate, prosecutors said.
“I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims,” Lee told reporters on Saturday as he left the Mokpo Branch of Gwangju District Court to be jailed.
But he defended his much-criticized decision to wait about 30 minutes before ordering an evacuation.
“At the time, the current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without (proper) judgment, if they were not wearing a life jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties,” Lee said.
“The rescue boats had not arrived yet, nor were there any civilian fishing ships or other boats nearby at that time.”
The Sewol had left the northwestern port of Incheon on Tuesday on an overnight journey to the holiday island of Jeju in the south with 323 students from Danwon High School in Ansan among its passengers.
It capsized within hours of the crew making a distress call to the shore a little before 9 am Wednesday.