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 The teenagers, whose names were withheld to protect their privacy,
were giving testimony at the trial of 15 crew members, who face
charges ranging from homicide to negligence for abandoning the
sinking ship.
"We were waiting and, when the water started coming in, the class
rep told everyone to put on the life vests ... the door was above
our heads, so she said we'll float and go through the door and
that's how we came out," one of the teenagers said.
"Other kids who got out before us pulled us out."
The ferry Sewol sank on April 16, killing 304 people, as many as 250
of them school children on a field trip. Twelve of their teachers
were also killed.
The ferry was on a routine trip from the port of Incheon south to
Jeju island, carrying students and teachers from the Danwon High
School on the outskirts of Seoul as well as other passengers and
cargo.
Another of the teenagers told how crew members had told passengers,
"specifically the students of Danwon High School", to stay in their
cabins.
"Water started to fill in and friends helped us move out," the
student said.
 Others described how coastguard officers waited outside the stricken
ferry for passengers to swim out rather than go into the ship to try
and rescue them.
"They were outside. They pulled us (onto boats) but they didn't come
inside to help," one said.
"We said to ourselves, 'why aren't they coming in?'."
"MORE FISHERMEN THAN RESCUERS"
Another student said it appeared there were more fishermen involved
in the rescue than coastguard. Like others, she said the crew should
be punished severely for their actions.
"More than that, I want to know the fundamental reason why my
friends had to end up like that," she said.
The six teenage survivors described how there were repeated orders
not to move from their cabins. Orders to put on their life vests
came much later and without any information about what was happening
to the ship as it began to list sharply.
They were the first of 75 children who survived due to give evidence
in the trial at the Gwangju court, which has been moved to Ansan
south of Seoul to accommodate the students.
Five of them gave their evidence facing away from the court. One
testified from another room via closed-circuit television.
The crew members on trial, including the captain, Lee Joon-seok,
have said they thought it was the coastguard's job to evacuate
passengers. Video footage of their escape triggered outrage across
South Korea.
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Two musicians from the Philippines who had been working on the ship
testified that the crew appeared to be in a state of panic as they
gathered on the ship's bridge as it started to list, making no
effort to get passengers off the vessel.
"I remember them panicked and worried," one of the pair, who was
identified only by her first name, Alex, told the court. She said
the captain was crouched and holding onto a metal bar, apparently
shaking with fear, and a junior ship's officer at the helm when the
vessel started to list was crying loudly.
The government of President Park Geun-hye was heavily criticised
over the slow and ineffective handling of the rescue operation. Park
has vowed to break up the coastguard and streamline rescue
operations, which are now split between the police, coastguard and
others, into a single national agency.
The disaster also sparked South Korea's biggest manhunt as
authorities searched for Yoo Byung-un, the man at the head of a
family business that operated the doomed ferry.
Yoo's badly decomposed body was identified last week after it was
found by a farmer at an orchard last month.
Earlier on Monday, a close associate of Yoo, a woman identified by
police only by her last name of Kim, was arrested after handing
herself in. It was believed she helped him elude police after the
disaster.
Another woman, the wife of Yoo's driver who was thought to have been
with him during his final days at large, also turned herself in to
police.
Kim's arrest came three days after police stormed an apartment on
the outskirts of Seoul and found Yoo's elder son, Dae-gyun, who was
wanted for embezzlement.
Yoo Dae-gyun was not believed to have been as actively involved in
management of the family business as his younger brother, who is
believed to be in the United States. He said he only learned of his
father's death from police.
 Extensive decomposition of Yoo Byung-un's body meant it was not
possible to determine the cause of his death despite forensic and
DNA tests, authorities said last week.
(Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Paul Tait and Robert Birsel)
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