The death toll from the ferry that capsized and sank off the coast of South Korea last week has risen to over 100, NBC News reported.

Rescue teams have been searching for survivors on the 475 passenger ferry, which sailed from the port city of Incheon for the island resort of Jeju. Nearly 200 passengers were rescued from the ferry after it sank last Wednesday, but another 200 hundred remained missing. The number of fatalities slowly rose to 108 as divers scaled the boat's remains under water.

Most of the passengers on the ferry were students from Danwon High School located near Seoul.

"Terrible scenes at bodies from S Korea ferry," NBC's Bill Neely tweeted Tuesday morning. "1 father screams over daughter 'Yesan, my poor baby. I haven't had a chance to say I love you.' "

Some 194 people are still missing, NBC News reported. Family members have endured an agonizing wait for word on their missing loved ones. Search efforts have been delayed due to murky waters and severe weather.

"At first, I was just very sad, but now it's like an endless wait," Woo Dong-suk, whose nephew was on the ferry, told the Associated Press, according to NBC News. "It's been too long already. The bodies must be decayed. The parents' only wish right now is to find the bodies before they are badly decomposed."

It is not clear why the ferry Sewol began to tilt to the side that Wednesday morning. The boat sank less than two hours after the first distress call was sent at around 9 a.m., local time.

Several crew members, including the ferry's captain, have been arrested for not ordering an evacuation. The passengers were allegedly told to stay onboard as it began to tilt, according to the BBC.

Witnesses say the captain, Lee Joon-seok, was one of the first to leave the ship in a life boat. Investigators also found out that a junior officer was at the helm, and not the captain, at the time of the incident.