BEIJING – Divers and other rescue workers battled Tuesday to reach survivors after hearing cries for help from within a tourist-filled cruise ship that capsized during a violent storm on China’s Yangtze River with 458 people on board.
In what could become the worst ferry disaster in China in nearly 70 years, six helicopters were sent to central Hubei province to scour the waters for survivors, while more than 140 navy divers rushed to the scene.
Some people escaped or were rescued. But at least 430 people remained unaccounted for, authorities said.
State television showed footage of a rescue worker in an orange life jacket hammering on the hull of the Eastern Star.
Another worker used a power tool to cut through the hull in a desperate bid to reach people trapped in an air pocket, who were reported to have been calling for help, according to state media.
Some 18 hours after the boat capsized, divers rescued a 65-year-old woman and a 21-year-old crew member. About a dozen other people swam to safety or were rescued earlier, officials said.
Six bodies have been recovered.
The captain of the vessel and the chief engineer were among the first to be rescued and have been detained by police for questioning.
The death toll seemed likely to surpass the sinking of a ferry in South Korea in April 2014, when 304 people, most of them children, drowned.
It is also likely to go down as the worst ferry disasters in China since the steamship Kiangya blew up on the Huangpu River in southeast China in 1948, killing more than 1,000 people.
Most passengers were between 50 and 80 years of age, state media reported, on an organized 11-day cruise along the Yangtze and its famous Three Gorges region.
Among the survivors was 43-year-old Zhang Hui, who was leading the tour group. Speaking to state news agency Xinhua, he said rain had lashed one side of the boat and water entered many rooms on Monday evening as lightning flashed.
He was walking to bed just after 9:30 p.m. as the boat suddenly listed 45 degrees, before capsizing almost immediately afterward.
Zhang said he had managed to grab a life jacket before being pitched into the river, where he saw several people around him drifting and calling for help in the dark waters.
“I was submerged by one wave after another, and I drank a lot of water,” he said.
At one point, another ship passed by, but its crew didn’t see him, he said.
“I told myself, it’ll be fine if I just hang in there a little longer,” he said.
Zhang ending up drifting more than 50 miles downstream over the course of 10 hours before using tree branches to row his way to shore at daybreak.
State radio said the four-decked ship had overturned in just two minutes in what the captain described as a sudden tornado, without issuing a distress call. The alarm was only raised when a handful of survivors swam ashore.
Xinhua said initial investigations had established that the ship was not overloaded and carried enough life jackets.
“There were life vests in prominent positions in every room, and the boat was open style,” Zhang said, according to Xinhua. “If it hadn’t capsized so fast, more people would have been saved.”
Nevertheless, questions remained over why the ship had capsized so suddenly, and why captain had apparently left his sinking ship so swiftly.
In Shanghai, angry relatives of those on board gathered to seek information. Among them was 49-year-old accountant Huang Yan, who said she believed her husband and father were onboard.
“Why did the captain leave the ship while the passengers were still missing?” she shouted, according to the Associated Press.
Chutian Metropolis Daily, a local newspaper, reported that another tourist boat had been cruising the same section of the river on Monday night but had decided to stop for the night near Hubei after encountering bad weather, while the Eastern Star had carried on.
The Business magazine Caixin said ship positioning data showed the vessel had changed direction before capsizing, raising questions about whether that maneuver had contributed to the disaster.
