Holes cut into capsized ship show no signs of life
Rescue teams cut three holes into a capsized ship on China's Yangtze River Thursday in hopes of finding survivors among 360 missing passengers, but were hampered by bad weather and fears that more air could escape and cause the ship to sink further, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.
There were more than 450 people on board the Eastern Star when it sank Monday in a severe storm. In addition to three people pulled from the hull earlier this week, 11 others managed to survive by swimming or drifting to shore.
But rescuers found no new survivors in the newly opened areas of the ship, said China's vice transportation minister He Jianzhong, who went to the scene to direct the search and rescue operations.
"So far, no signs of life have been detected," he said, according to CCTV. "We will continuing the underwater search through the whole ship depending on the weather."
Bad weather early Thursday forced teams to temporarily abandon an attempt to cut a rectangular hole in the bottom of the upturned ship to let in oxygen and enable divers to get inside.
Divers did manage to attach steel cables to the hull and use cranes to support the unstable ship. Rescuers are worried that if any more air in the hull escapes, it could cause the ship to lose buoyancy and sink deeper, CCTV reports.
Among the 14 survivors were the ship's captain and chief engineer, both of whom were taken into police custody. Family members of the victims have questioned whether everything possible was done to avoid the disaster.
Records from a maritime agency show the capsized ship was cited for safety violations two years ago, the Associated Press reports.
Authorities in Nanjing held the ship and five other Yangtze cruise vessels after it found them violating standards during a safety inspection campaign in 2013, according to a report on the city's Maritime Safety website. It didn't specify the violations.
More than 200 divers found 49 more bodies Thursday, bringing the total recovered to 75.
Many of the passengers were retirees on a cruise from Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing.