The death toll from the ferry disaster rose to 113 Tuesday afternoon as the search mission continued.

According to reports, the number of bodies recovered from the sunken ferry Sewol reached 113 as of about 7:02 p.m.

The death toll, which stood at 87 at the end of Monday’s search, has been rising quickly since the early hours of Tuesday. The number of people unaccounted for now stands at 189.

There were 476 crew and passengers onboard the ship, which sank Wednesday about 20 kilometers off the coast of Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province.

The death toll is expected to rise throughout the day as the search and rescue mission goes into higher gear aided by the slowed currents. Two remotely-operated vehicles are also to be used again to search for missing passengers inside the vessel.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)

Photo credit: Yonhap