Ship with over 450 on board sinks in China's Yangtze river

A cruise ship carrying over 450 people, mostly elderly, capsized due to a cyclone in the murky waters of Asia's longest Yangtze River in China's Hubei province as rescuers today raced against time to find survivors with hundreds missing and at least five dead.

The Eastern Star, which left the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing at 1:15 PM (local time) on Thursday bound for Chongqing Municipality on the upper reaches of the river, sank "within one or two minutes" of being caught in freak weather in Jianli, central Hubei Province, according to the ship's captain and chief engineer who survived the incident.

Twelve people have been rescued so far and another five confirmed dead after the cruise ship carrying 458 people sank in the 6,300 km-long Yangtze River overnight, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The exact cause of the sinking was not immediately clear, but the captain and chief engineer both reportedly said it had been caught in a "cyclone".

The sinking could be the worst in China for decades. The water is 15 metres deep where the four-storey ship sank at around 9:30 PM local time yesterday in the Jianli section of the Yangtze.

Divers rescued a woman aged 65 from inside the ship past midnight. The ages of those on board the Eastern Star range from 3 to 83 years, with most in their 60s and 70s.

Three survivors, aged 37, 42 and 50 respectively were being treated at a Hubei hospital.

Wang Yangsheng, senior official with the Yueyang Maritime Rescue Center, said the incident happened, "so fast that the captain did not even have the time to send out a distress signal."

There were 406 passengers, five tour guides and 47 crew on board the ship.

More than 400 people boarded in Nanjing, including more than 100 tourists with state-owned Shanghai Xiehe Travel Agency. Most of those on board are from Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu Province.

Families this morning gathered at the dock where the ship departed last week, waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones.

The 76-meter ship has been in service for nearly 20 years and can carry up to 534 people. It is one of five luxury vessels operated by the state-owned Chongqing Wanzhou Dongfang Shipping Company. Waterways officials in Chongqing have no record of company involvement in any previous sinking.

Police, maritime authorities and fire departments have dispatched a total of 36 ships to the scene and another 117 boats have joined the operation.

More than 1,840 soldiers, 1,600 police and 1,000 civilians have been mobilised but bad weather was hampering rescue efforts.