The captain of the South Korean ferry which sank in April has been found guilty of gross negligence and sentenced to 36 years in prison, BBC News reports.

The Sewol ferry was carrying 476 people when it went down. More than 300 died, most of them school students.

Lee Joon-seok was among 15 crew members on trial over the sinking, one of South Korea's worst maritime disasters. Prosecutors charged him with homicide and called for the death penalty, but judges acquitted him on that charge.

Lee is in his 70s, and with his jail term he has effectively been handed life imprisonment, the BBC says.

Lee was seen leaving the ferry along with crew members when the vessel began listing, while many passengers remained inside. During the trial he apologized for abandoning them.

The chief engineer of the ferry was jailed for 30 years, while 13 other crew members were given jail sentences of up to 20 years.

The disaster triggered nationwide grief followed by outrage, with revelations of mismanagement by ferry operators and lapses in the emergency response.

Hours before the verdict, the South Korean government called off the search for bodies in the sunken vessel.

A total of 295 bodies have been retrieved by teams of divers but nine people remain unaccounted for.