Chinese ship sinks in Yangtze with more than 450 on board

mangaloretoday.com

Yangtze, China, June 03: Five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship carrying 456 people capsized on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province.

Officials say at least 15 people survived, with some found alive inside the submerged hull of the Eastern Star.

 

 

The captain and the chief engineer, who both survived, have been detained. They say the boat, which sent no emergency signal, was caught in a cyclone.

The rescue is continuing into the night but is being hampered by bad weather.

Chinese media quoted the captain as saying the vessel sank within minutes, while many people were asleep. BBC weather forecaster Peter Gibbs says there were severe thunderstorms in the area.

Most of those on board were tourists aged between 50 and 80 travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west - a journey of at least 1,500km (930 miles).

The ship sank in the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze, where the world’s third longest river reaches depths of about 15m (50ft).