2 Jun 2015

Rescue bid to save trapped passengers

5:41 pm on 2 June 2015

Rescuers trying to save people trapped in a ship which sank on the Yangtze River in China say noises can be heard coming from inside the submerged hull.

The ship was carrying more than 450 people when it sank, and only about 12 people have been rescued.

Rescue boats can be seen alongside the capsized passenger ship in the Yangtze.

Rescue boats can be seen alongside the capsized passenger ship in the Yangtze. Photo: AFP

Work is under way to save the remaining passengers, with state media reporting that divers tapping the hull could hear survivors trapped inside.

Police have detained the captain and chief engineer of the ship, who were among those rescued, and they were quoted as saying that the ship had been caught in a cyclone and sank quickly.

The vessel had been travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west when it sank.

The ship, the Eastern Star, had been carrying 405 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and 47 crew, Xinhua said.

Rescue work was being hampered by strong winds and heavy rain. The sinking happened in the Jianli county of Hubei Province.

State broadcaster CCTV said the vessel was owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, which runs tours to the scenic Three Gorges river canyon area along the Yangtze.

Most of those on board were tourists aged between 50 and 80 on a tour organised by Shanghai company Xiehe Travel.

Anxious relatives in Shanghai have gathered outside the company's office, which remains shut. They told reporters that calls to their loved ones on board were not getting through.

Twenty-two people died on the river in January, when a tugboat undergoing tests capsized near Zhangjiagang, in Jiangsu province.

-BBC

A relative of missing passengers who were on a ship which sank in the Yangtze River is interviewed by a journalist.

A relative of missing passengers who were on a ship which sank in the Yangtze River is interviewed by a journalist. Photo: AFP

Rescuers work near the ship sinking site in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province

Rescuers work near the ship sinking site in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province. Photo: AAP