Hundreds of tourists missing after cruise ship sinks

Sunday, 02 Jun, 2015 0

At least five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship capsized on China’s Yangtze River.

The Eastern Star, which was carrying 458 people – most of them Chinese tourists – sank in the Hubei province.

Several of those onboard managed to swim ashore to raise the alarm and alert police, but it took two and a half hours for rescue workers to reach the ship, which is floating upside down in a wide stretch of the river.

According to the BBC, so far only a dozen people have been rescued, including an 85-year-old woman.

Most of the passengers were tourists aged around 50 to 80, but the youngest was just one year old.

The ship, owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, was sailing from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west, via the scenic Three Gorges, one of China’s premier tourist attractions.

Thousands of soldiers and rescue personnel have been deployed, said the BBC, and a high-powered salvage ship is on its way to pull the boat upright, but rescue efforts are being hampered by heavy rain and strong winds.

The ship’s captain, who was amongst those rescued, claimed it was caught in a cyclone and sank quickly. It went down at around 21:30 on Monday in deep water in the Damazhou section of the Yangtze in Jianli county, Hubei.

Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk

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