Hopes Dim Again For Finding Survivors

Rescue workers reached pockets of air in the rubble of a collapsed shopping mall Monday, but instead of hoped-for survivors, they found only decomposing bodies.

As the death toll rose to 410, Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo called the June 29 cave-in of the Sampoong Department Store “the nation’s worst tragedy.”

Hopes of finding more survivors in the concrete ruins had grown Saturday when a 19-year-old sales clerk was pulled out alive, 16 days after the tragedy.

Some of the bodies recovered Sunday showed only early signs of decomposition, indicating that those victims might have died recently.

About 270 people still are missing.