Ship carrying 458 capsizes in China
Vessel’s captain blames cyclone
BEIJING – Rescuers heard trapped survivors yelling for help today from inside a capsized cruise ship on China’s Yangtze River after it went down overnight in a storm with 458 people aboard, most of them elderly, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Twelve people survived, and at least five people were confirmed dead in the accident late Monday in Hubei province on a cruise from Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing, the broadcaster said.
Search teams heard people calling out from within the partially submerged ship about 12 hours after it went down about 9:38 p.m. Monday during windy weather, CCTV said. Weather conditions today were hindering the rescue.
Footage from the broadcaster showed rescuers in orange life vests climbing on top of the upside down hull, with one of them lying down tapping a hammer and listening for a response, then gesturing downward.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted the captain and chief engineer, who were both rescued, as saying the ship sank quickly after being caught in a cyclone. The Communist Party-run People’s Daily said the ship sank within two minutes. CCTV said the two men were in police custody.
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.
The ship sank in the Damazhou waterway section, where the river is about 50 feet deep, and drifted almost 2 miles. The Yangtze is the world’s third-longest river and sometimes floods during the summer monsoon season.
Several rescue ships were searching the waters, and divers had been deployed. The broadcaster said rescue personnel were trying to determine whether they could right the sunken ship.
The channel said seven of the survivors swam to shore and alerted authorities to the sinking.
More than 50 boats and 3,000 people were involved in search efforts.
The Eastern Star is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corp., which focuses on tourism routes in the popular Three Gorges river canyon region.
CCTV reported that 6 inches of rain had fallen in the region over the past 24 hours. Local media reported winds reached 80 mph during the accident.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is reported to be traveling to the accident site. Xinhua reported that President Xi Jinping had ordered a work team of the State Council, the country’s Cabinet, to rush to the site to guide the rescue work.