Bones found near the wreckage of a South Korean ferry belonged to animals, not missing passengers from the ship's 2014 sinking in which 304 people died, the government says.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries had earlier said on Monday salvage crews found bones measuring 4 to 18 centimetres that were likely to be the remains of one or more of the nine missing passengers.
But after inspecting the bones, investigators from the National Forensic Service concluded that they were from unidentified animals, not humans.
The discovery of the presumed human bones had triggered an angry reaction from the missing victims' relatives, who criticised the government's salvage operation as poorly planned and questioned whether other remains might have gotten lost while workers raised the sunken ship last week. The ministry also said shoes and other items believed to be from the missing victims were found.
Workers have just completed a massive operation to lift the corroding 6,800-ton Sewol from the sea, and recovering the remains of the missing victims would put the country a step closer to finding closure to one its deadliest maritime disasters.
The bones were found near a beam beneath the front side of the ferry, which had been loaded onto a heavy lift transport vessel that will carry it to port.
A total of 304 people died in the disaster. Rescue workers recovered the bodies of 295 people - most of them students on a high school trip - before the government ended underwater searches in November 2014, seven months after the ship sank.
Crews on the transport vessel have drilled dozens of holes in the ferry in an effort to empty it of water and fuel before it's ready to be transported to a port in the city of Mokpo. Relatives had expressed concern that remains of the missing victims could slip out through the holes and get lost.
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