JIANLI, China (AP) – Chinese authorities escalated efforts to recover more than 420 people believed to be trapped inside an overturned river cruise ship Wednesday, deploying scores more divers and a large crane to possibly lift the craft.
The capsizing late Monday of the multi-decked Eastern Star in the Yangtze River in southern China is on track to become the country’s deadliest maritime disaster in seven decades. Chinese authorities have launched a high-profile response while tightly controlling media coverage.
Premier Li Keqiang, the country’s No. 2 political leader, has traveled to the disaster site in the Hubei province county of Jianli where he urged “all-out,” 24-7 efforts. Officials said the boat overturned in a severe storm with winds up to 80 mph (130 kph).
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the bodies of 19 victims have been pulled from the boat, floating Wednesday with a sliver of its hull jutting from the grey river water, and that 14 people had survived, some of them by swimming ashore.
But the vast majority of the 456 people on board remain missing. Many were elderly tourists taking in the scenic vistas of the Yangtze on a cruise from Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing.