‘No chance’ of finding survivors after capsized Chinese ferry is righted

Rescue teams have finished righting a Chinese cruise ship that capsized on the Yangtze River but officials said there was no chance of finding anyone alive. So far, 97 bodies have been recovered from the Eastern Star disaster. Chinese authorities began on Thursday to right the cruise ship, after divers sent to search for survivors found no signs of life inside. Only 14 survivors, including the captain and chief engineer, have been found since the ship carrying 456 people overturned during a freak tornado on Monday night. The mission has now become an operation to recover hundreds of bodies.

Due to factors including the recent wide-ranging rainfall, it was exceptionally hard for the divers every time they submerged. Every dive was a grope in the dark.

Transport ministry spokesman Xu Chengguang

State broadcaster CCTV announced on Friday morning that the boat had been righted, and that teams would still try to lift the vessel even though the water inside it was weighing it down. Transport Ministry spokesman Xu Chengguang said earlier that the operation would involve divers putting steel bars underneath the ship, which would then be lifted by two 500-tonne cranes. A huge net was placed near the cranes and another one a few metres downstream to catch any bodies. The bodies pulled out on Thursday were taken to Jianli’s Rongcheng Crematorium, in Hubei province, where relatives tried to identify them.