Hundreds Feared Dead after Chinese Ship Capsizes

A ship carrying around 450 people on China's Yangtze River set off frantic rescue efforts.

Reuters reports that hundreds are missing after the ship capsized in violent weather and the incident is the worst shipping industry accident in nearly 70 years. The ship that capsized was a four-floor vessel called the Eastern Star.

Rescuers are said to have heard and located five people banging on the bottom of the hull of the ship, which was protruding from the river. The rescuers were able to pull at least one elderly man and woman from the wreckage of the ship.

Complicating rescue efforts were strong winds and high waters from the storm that caused the Eastern Star to sink in the first place.

A dozen other people had been rescued, and five bodies were recovered from the scene, leaving 430 people missing.

Worryingly, the BBC reports that the ship sent no distress signal, and the authorities only learned of the disaster when people who escaped the disaster had swum ashore.

The ship's captain and chief engineer have been detained by the police as the investigation into the disaster begins.

The BBC says that the death toll may increase greatly as the ship sunk when most of the passengers were sleeping and in only a matter of minutes.

The ship was on its regular 930 mile journey from Nanjing in the east, to Chongqing in the southwest.

In an expression of how serious the Chinese government is taking the disaster, they have ordered the Three Gorges Dam to reduce its flow of water so that rescue work can be made somewhat easier.

Images from the scene showed hundreds of rescue personnel and dozens of boats doing their best to save as many lives as possible.

The government also dispatched a powerful ship that has the ability to pull the sunken vessel upright.