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 Divers and other rescue workers desperately tried to reach five
people they found trapped in the upturned hull of the Eastern Star,
a fraction of the 458 people state media reported were on board when
the ship capsized in a storm late on Monday.
Distraught relatives of some of the passengers scuffled with
officials in the city of Shanghai, where many of those on board
booked their trips, angry about what they said was a lack of
information about their loved ones.
The Xinhua news agency said rescuers could hear people calling for
help from inside the ship's hull and television showed rescuers
trying to cut through it with an angle grinder.
Divers pulled a man and a 65-year-old woman alive from the capsized
four-decked tourist ship, Xinhua said. State media had earlier said
the woman was 85.
About another dozen people had been rescued and five bodies
recovered, media reported, leaving more than 430 people unaccounted
for. Dozens of rescue boats battled wind and rain to reach the ship,
which lay upturned in water about 15 meters (50 feet) deep.
 The disaster could bring a bigger toll than the sinking of a ferry
in South Korea in April 2014 that killed 304 people, most of them
children on a school trip.
The People's Daily, which published a passenger manifest on its
microblog, said those on board the Eastern Star ranged in age from
three to more than 80.
Tour guide Zhang Hui, 43, told Xinhua the capsize happened very fast
and he scrambled out a window in torrential rain clutching a life
vest as he could not swim.
"Wave after wave crashed over me; I swallowed a lot of water," Zhang
said, adding that he was unable to flag down passing ships and
finally struggled ashore as dawn broke holding onto a branch.
President Xi Jinping had ordered that no efforts be spared in the
rescue and Premier Li Keqiang went to the scene of the accident in
central Hubei province, Xinhua said.
About 60 family members gathered outside a travel agency in Shanghai
and demanded information.
"I only found out about this on the news while I was at work and I
came here," said 35-year-old Wang Sheng, whose said his mother and
father were on board. "I cried all the way here and here I can't
find anyone, the door is locked."
CAPTAIN DETAINED BY POLICE
The ship's captain and the chief engineer, who were among the few to
be rescued, had been detained by police for questioning, Xinhua
said.
According to the Yangtze River navigation administration, the pair
said the ship sank quickly after it was caught in what was described
as a tornado.
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Xinhua reported that initial investigations had found the ship was
not overloaded and it had enough life vests on board for its
passengers. Those rescued were wearing life vests, Xinhua said.
Among those on board were 406 tourists, aged from about 50 to 80, on
a tour organized by a Shanghai tour group, along with 47 crew
members and five tour guides, the People's Daily said.
State radio said the ship went over in about two minutes and no
distress call had been issued. Seven people swam to shore to raise
the alarm, media said.
Fishing boats were among the dozens of vessels helping in the search
and rescue, Xinhua said, and more than 1,000 police with 40
inflatable boats had also been sent.
The Eastern Star, which has the capacity to carry more than 500
people, was heading to southwestern Chongqing city from Nanjing,
capital of Jiangsu province. It sank at around 9:28 p.m. in the
Jianli section of the river.
Accidents of this magnitude are uncommon in China where major rivers
are used for tours and cruises. A tug sank on the Yangtze while
undergoing sea trials in January, killing 22 of 25 people on board.
In the worst previous incident of its kind in China, the steamship
Kiangya blew up on the Huangpu river in 1948, killing more than
1,000 people.
The Eastern Star is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping
Corporation, which runs tours along the Three Gorges section of the
Yangtze.
Wang Jianhua, its vice general manager, said it had never suffered
an incident of this magnitude. The official Hubei Daily said the
company has been operating since 1981.
(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh, and Ben Blanchard and Michael
Martina in BEIJING; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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