Hundreds feared dead after China cruise ship overturns in Yangtze river

Three people were pulled out alive more than 12 hours after the cruise ship overturned, raising hopes that there will be more survivors

A survivor of an overturned passenger ship is rescued June 2, 2015, in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province. The cruise ship went down overnight in a storm on the river, state broadcaster CCTV said. Cheng Min / Xinhua via APShow less

JIANLI, CHINA // More than 400 people were feared dead on Tuesday after their cruise ship capsized in the Yangtze river, as divers pulled out three people alive from the wreckage hours after it overturned.

Fifteen people were brought to safety and at least five people were confirmed dead after the Eastern Star capsized in Hubei Province during a severe storm on Monday night with 458 people aboard, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The survivors included the ship’s captain and chief engineer, both of whom were taken into police custody, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Relatives who gathered in Shanghai, where many of the travellers started their journey by bus, questioned whether the captain did enough to ensure the safety of passengers and demanded answers from local officials in unruly scenes that drew a heavy police response.

Some of the other survivors swam ashore, but others were rescued after search teams climbed aboard the upside-down hull and heard people yelling for help from within more than 12 hours after the ship overturned.

CCTV showed rescuers in orange life vests climbing on the upside-down hull, with one of them lying down tapping a hammer and listening for a response, then gesturing downward.

Divers pulled out a 65-year-old woman and two men who had been trapped, CCTV said. It said additional people had been found and were being rescued.

“We will do everything we can to rescue everyone trapped in there, no matter they’re still alive or not and we will treat them as our own families,” Hubei military region commander Chen Shoumin said.

Thirteen navy divers were on the scene and would be bolstered by 170 more by Wednesday, he said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang travelled to the accident site.

The overturned ship had drifted about 3 kilometres downstream before coming to rest close to the shore, where fast currents made the rescue difficult. It was a good sign for rescuers because it meant there was enough air inside to give it buoyancy, and could mean there are enough air pockets for survivors to breathe, said Park Chi-mo, a professor of naval architecture and ocean engineering at South Korea’s Ulsan University.

Xinhua cited the captain and the chief engineer as saying the ship sank quickly after being caught in what they described as a cyclone. The Communist Party-run People’s Daily said the ship sank within two minutes.

CCTV said the four-level ship had been carrying 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and 47 crew members. The broadcaster said most of the passengers were 50 to 80 years of age.

Relatives of passengers gathered in Shanghai at a travel agency that had booked many of the trips, and later headed to a government office to demand more information before police broke up the gatherings.

Huang Yan, 49, an accountant in Shanghai, wept as her husband and his father were believed to be onboard.

“Why did the captain leave the ship while the passengers were still missing?” Ms Huang shouted. “We want the government to release the name list to see who was on the boat.”

A group of about a dozen retirees from a Shanghai bus company were on the trip, said a woman who identified herself only by her surname, Chen. Among them were her elder sister and her sister’s husband, both 60, and their 6-year-old granddaughter.

“This group has travelled together a lot, but only on short trips. This is the first time they travelled for a long trip,” Ms Chen said.

* Associated Press