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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 announced yesterday.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries had earlier said salvage crews had found bones measuring 4 to 18 centimeters 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 relatives of the missing victims who criticized the government’s salvage operation as poorly planned and who had questioned whether other remains might have been 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 of 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 called a halt to the underwater searches in November 2014, seven months after the ship sank.

Earlier yesterday, relatives of the missing passengers participated in an emotional memorial service on a boat near the transport vessel.