Protesters, police clash in Sewol rallies

A host of street rallies were held in downtown Seoul late Saturday in protest of the government's poor handling of the sinking of a ferry off South Korea's southwest coast last month.

About 500 civic groups, including the Korean Federation of Trade Unions and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, held a joint rally around Cheonggye Plaza, downtown Seoul, starting on Saturday evening in memory of the more than 300 people killed when the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized and sank off the southwestern island of Jindo on April 16. Nineteen people remain missing.

The government has come under severe public criticism for its botched initial response to one of the country's worst maritime disasters.

After holding the rally, protesters marched to Seoul Plaza, located in front of the Seoul City Hall, to visit a memorial altar set up there in commemoration of the ferry victims.

As many as 30,000 people, including some families of the ferry victims, joined what would become the biggest street demonstration over the ferry sinking, according to civic groups. Police estimated the number of participants at around 10,000.

A group of some 7,500 civic group members, including those from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, also held a rally in the early afternoon over the ferry accident near Seoul Station.

Another group of 2,500 people from right-leaning civic groups held a separate evening rally in downtown Seoul to call on fellow protesters to stop using the maritime disaster to aggravate national division and resentment. (Yonhap)