The captain of the sunken ferry Sewol has appealed a lower court's guilty verdict for abandoning passengers in the deadly sinking, court officials said Monday.

Last week, Lee Joon-seok was sentenced to 36 years in prison for gross negligence and dereliction of duty, including abandoning his ship while the passengers, most of them high school students on a school trip, remained trapped inside the vessel.

Gwangju District Court also delivered prison terms ranging from five years to 30 year to 14 other crewmen, including the ship's chief engineer.

The officials said that lawyers representing Lee and the crewmen submitted requests for an appeal with the court in succession on Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Prosecutors, who had earlier sought the death penalty against Lee, also immediately filed appeals, saying that the ruling was regrettable. 

The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank in waters near the southwestern port of Jindo en route to the southern resort island of Jeju. A total of 295 people, mostly teenage students on a field trip, have been confirmed dead, with nine remaining unaccounted for. (Yonhap)