A heartbreaking text message from a doomed passenger to his mother came to light Wednesday as nearly 300 people remained missing from a capsized ferry off South Korea, New York Daily news reported.

As the 6,825-ton ferry, the "Sewol," slowly sank off the southern coast of South Korea, a high school student typed a tragic cellphone text to his mom.

"Mom, this might be the last chance to tell you I love you," the student wrote in a message that was posted on the Internet and quickly went viral.

His frantic mother messaged back, but got no reply.

The emotional text wasn't the only one sent from the ship, as ocean water filled the decks and the ferry listed and tilted onto its side, New York Daily news reported.

"Dad, I can't walk out because the ship is tilted, and I don't see anyone in the corridor," another terrified passenger texted her father, according to a South Korean TV station YTN.

Officials said the ferry was carrying 462 passengers when it started sinking about 9 a.m. local time 60 miles off the southern tip of South Korea.

An anxious family member seeks word of of missing passengers on the ferry 'Sewol,' which sunk off the southern coast of South Korea on Wednesday.

Aboard the ferry were 325 students and 15 teachers from Danwon High School in the Seoul suburb of Ansan.

The ferry, owned by the Chonghaejin Marine Co., set sail from Incheon, a port town west of Seoul, on what was expected to be a 13 1/2-hour trip to the volcanic island of Jeju when disaster struck without warning.