Capsized Chinese ship righted on Yangtze River
Chinese disaster teams have righted the cruise ship that recently capsized on the Yangtze River in China’s central province of Hubei in an effort to speed up the search for hundreds of missing people.
China’s Transportation Ministry spokesman Xu Chengguang told a news conference on Friday that two 500-ton cranes put the overturned vessel, dubbed Eastern Star, back into the upright position earlier in the morning after some 50 divers attached iron chains to it overnight.
Xu added that the next step in the rescue operation was to raise the ship entirely above the water to conduct the search for the dead bodies and possible survivors.
Divers found more bodies overnight while they were attaching chains to the capsized boat, bringing the total number of the bodies found so far to 97, the Transportation Ministry spokesman added.
The multi-decked, 251-foot -long Eastern Star, with 456 people on board, was traveling along a tourist route from the eastern city of Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it capsized on June 1. Most of the passengers were reported to be retirees.
According to state media, more than 340 people are still missing.
Xu, the Chinese official, also emphasized that the chance of finding anyone else still alive remained “very slim” as no further signs of life had been found.
Meanwhile, the relatives of the ship’s missing passengers have held protests, demanding more information on the search operation.
A massive search operation is currently underway to find the capsized vessel’s missing passengers. The captain and the chief engineer of the ship, who were among those rescued, have been taken into custody.
On June 4, rescue workers cut three holes into the ship’s overturned hull, which was just barely visible in the muddy waters of the river, to find more survivors. The holes, however, were later closed in an attempt to maintain the ship’s balance and buoyancy.
SSM/MKA/HJL
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