SEOUL
South Korean officials lifted the death toll from the Sewol ferry disaster to 289 on Thursday after a body was recovered in waters near where it capsized and sank.
Navy and coast guard divers have been retrieving bodies from the wreck of the 6,825-ton boat since it sank off the country's southwestern coast April 16, but for two weeks had not recovered any of the remains of those 16 passengers still unaccounted for.
The government's disaster response team identified the body Thursday as a 44-year-old male passenger who was on a trip with his wife and two sons. The man's seven-year-old child was rescued from the sinking ship and is the family's sole survivor.
Yonhap -- Korea's national news agency -- reported that the body is suspected to have been swept away from the boat after it was found in waters around 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the site.
Divers have cast nets around the ship to such incidents, while a crane is being considered to lift out the ferry.
On board the boat -- travelling from Incheon to the southern resort island of Jeju -- were 476 people, most of them high school students.
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