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Chinese search frantically for ship survivors

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Thu, 4 Jun 2015, 7:20AM

Chinese search frantically for ship survivors

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Thu, 4 Jun 2015, 7:20AM

Rescuers have started cutting through the hull of a capsized Chinese cruise ship in a desperate effort to find survivors among more than 450 people still missing days after the disaster.

Only 14 survivors have so far been found, along with 26 bodies, since the "Eastern Star" overturned late on Monday in a storm on the Yangtze river, leaving a section of its hull protruding.

Chinese state media agency Xinhua warned on Wednesday that the disaster could become the deadliest in the country for almost seven decades as rescue workers started cutting into the bottom of the ship as the hull is lifted by steel cables.

"The ship sank in a very short timeframe so there could still be air trapped in the hull," it quoted Li Qixiu of the Naval University of Engineering as saying, "and that means there could still be survivors."

Li said divers had attached steel cables to the hull and the plan was to support the ship with cranes while rescuers searched inside.

Witnesses and state media said the ship - which was carrying a total of 456 people, most aged over 60, on a holiday cruise - sank in a matter of seconds after it was hit by bad weather.

The captain and chief engineer, who were also among the survivors and were being questioned by police, both reportedly said the ship was caught in a freak storm.

Weathermen said a tornado was in the area at the time.

A transport ministry spokesman told AFP that rescuers were battling low visibility in the muddy waters, but would keep searching even as hopes of finding survivors dwindled.
"We will never give up our last efforts," Xu Chengguang said.

Relatives of the mostly elderly passengers clashed with police earlier on Wednesday as hope that survivors would be found turned to anger at a lack of new information.

"The police first formed a human wall and didn't let us in. Then the relatives got excited and started to shout. Some policemen hit people," said one young woman whose mother was on the boat.

Zhang Hui, a 43-year-old tour guide on board who survived despite being unable to swim, told Xinhua he had just "30 seconds to grab a life jacket".

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