Tuesday 2 June 2015

Five Dead, Hundreds Missing as Chinese Ship Capsizes on Yangtze


Five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized on the Yangtze River in China's Hubei province during a heavy storm.

Officials of the ministry of Transport  say 14 people have been rescued, with some found alive inside the upside-down hull of the vessel.
Also rescued included the Captain and the Chief engineer and a 65 year- old woman.


The boat, the Eastern Star, reportedly sent no emergency signal. The alarm was raised by those who had swum to shore.

The captain and the chief engineer, have been detained. They say the boat was caught in a cyclone.
Chinese media quoted them as saying the vessel sank within minutes, while many people were asleep. BBC weather forecaster Peter Gibbs says severe thunderstorms in the area may have caused the ship to capsize.

Most of those on board were tourists aged around 50 to 80 travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west - a journey of at least 1,500km (930 miles).

The ship sank in the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze, where the world's third longest river reaches depths of about 15m (50ft).

Meanwhile, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived the scene to supervise rescue work along with two other senior officials.
He called for “all-out rescue efforts” and better safety measures.

No comments:

Post a Comment