Cranes attempt to lift the capsized tourist ship Eastern Star in Jianli county in southern China’s Hubei province Friday, June 5, 2015. Top-deck cabins poked out of the water from the capsized river cruise ship on the Yangtze on Friday after disaster teams righted the vessel to quicken the search for the hundreds still missing. (Chinatopix Via AP) CHINA OUT
JIANLI, China—The death toll in China Eastern Star capsizing rose to 331 on Saturday as disaster teams searched the boat for bodies a day after pulling it upright and raising it from gray currents of the Yangtze River.
Authorities have attributed the overturning of the river cruise ship Monday to sudden, severe winds, but also have placed the captain and first engineer under police custody. Passengers’ relatives have raised questions about whether the ship should have continued its cruise after the storm started and despite a weather warning earlier in the evening.
State media outlets said hundreds more bodies were found overnight and Saturday, bringing the death toll to 331. The state broadcaster CCTV and the official Xinhua News Agency earlier Saturday morning put the death toll at 345, but they both later revised the number downward to 331.
The boat had more than 450 people aboard, many of them elderly tourists, for cruise from Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing. Fourteen people have survived.