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, the vast majority of them high school students who had been on a holiday trip.

The ferry, Sewol, sank Wednesday off South Korea's southern coast, but it took days for divers to get in because of strong currents and bad visibility due to foul weather.

Beginning late Saturday, when divers broke a window, and continuing into Sunday, multiple teams of divers have found various routes into the ferry, discovering bodies in different spots, a coast guard official Koh Myung-seok said at a briefing.

Thirteen bodies have been found in the ship, while six other bodies were found floating outside Sunday, bringing the official death toll to 52, the coast guard said.

Divers, who once pumped air into the ship in the slim hope that survivors were inside, have yet to find anyone alive there.

1. Various of Korean Coast Guards on Coast Guard boat examining three bodies in body bags recovered from the sea at the site of the sinking of the Sewol ferry

2. Pan Coast Guard officer walking on the boat towards the direction where bodies are being examined

3. Close up body bags

4. Wide Korean Navy boat searching in the area where the ship Seowl sank

5. Wide rescue operation

6. Wide coast guards and other rescue units searching the area where ship sank

7. Wide Korean special unit UDT Seal searching the area

8. Various of rescue units searching

9. Mid Coast guards loading a recovered body onto a Korean police boat

10. Wide Korean Coast Guards boat next to Police boat

11. Military helicopter flying over the area of the recovery mission

12. Wide crane

13. Close crane

14. Coast guards on boat