JIANLI, CHINA // More than 400 people were feared dead on Tuesday after their cruise ship capsized in the Yangtze river, as divers pulled out three people alive from the wreckage hours after it overturned.
Fifteen people were brought to safety and at least five people were confirmed dead after the Eastern Star capsized in Hubei Province during a severe storm on Monday night with 458 people aboard, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The survivors included the ship’s captain and chief engineer, both of whom were taken into police custody, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Relatives who gathered in Shanghai, where many of the travellers started their journey by bus, questioned whether the captain did enough to ensure the safety of passengers and demanded answers from local officials in unruly scenes that drew a heavy police response.
Some of the other survivors swam ashore, but others were rescued after search teams climbed aboard the upside-down hull and heard people yelling for help from within more than 12 hours after the ship overturned.
CCTV showed rescuers in orange life vests climbing on the upside-down hull, with one of them lying down tapping a hammer and listening for a response, then gesturing downward.
Divers pulled out a 65-year-old woman and two men who had been trapped, CCTV said. It said additional people had been found and were being rescued.
“We will do everything we can to rescue everyone trapped in there, no matter they’re still alive or not and we will treat them as our own families,” Hubei military region commander Chen Shoumin said.
Thirteen navy divers were on the scene and would be bolstered by 170 more by Wednesday, he said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang travelled to the accident site.
The overturned ship had drifted about 3 kilometres downstream before coming to rest close to the shore, where fast currents made the rescue difficult. It was a good sign for rescuers because it meant there was enough air inside to give it buoyancy, and could mean there are enough air pockets for survivors to breathe, said Park Chi-mo, a professor of naval architecture and ocean engineering at South Korea’s Ulsan University.
Xinhua cited the captain and the chief engineer as saying the ship sank quickly after being caught in what they described as a cyclone. The Communist Party-run People’s Daily said the ship sank within two minutes.
CCTV said the four-level ship had been carrying 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and 47 crew members. The broadcaster said most of the passengers were 50 to 80 years of age.
Relatives of passengers gathered in Shanghai at a travel agency that had booked many of the trips, and later headed to a government office to demand more information before police broke up the gatherings.
Huang Yan, 49, an accountant in Shanghai, wept as her husband and his father were believed to be onboard.
“Why did the captain leave the ship while the passengers were still missing?” Ms Huang shouted. “We want the government to release the name list to see who was on the boat.”
A group of about a dozen retirees from a Shanghai bus company were on the trip, said a woman who identified herself only by her surname, Chen. Among them were her elder sister and her sister’s husband, both 60, and their 6-year-old granddaughter.
“This group has travelled together a lot, but only on short trips. This is the first time they travelled for a long trip,” Ms Chen said.
* Associated Press
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Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
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Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
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