Rescue operation is under way. (Photo/Xinhua)
1. Eleven people have been pulled from water, 10 of them alive. Three survivors have been sent to hospital. They are Tan Jian, 42; Cheng Lin, 50; and Jiang Kang, 37.[Special coverage]
2. Rescuers are exploring the bottom of the ship where they have heard noises. Divers knocked on the ship wreck underwater and got reply from inside. After cutting through the bottom rescuers found two passengers trapped inside. A body has been retrieved believed to be of a tourist guide.
3. Seven people swam to the shore from the wreck site and alerted the police, according to the captain and crew members. Divers have arrived to carry out underwater search and rescue.
4. According to maritime experts, the first four hours is crucial to finding survivors. The current situation does not look very optimistic as 12 hours have passed since the passenger ship overturned.
5. The ship carried 458 people, with 406 domestic tourists, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members. 97 are from Shanghai, 204 from Jiangsu, 11 from Zhejiang, 43 from Tianjin, 23 from Shandong, 19 from Fujian and 8 from Anhui.
6. Since tourists did not purchase their tickets based on real names, it is difficult to get accurate information about passengers. It is believed that most of the passengers are seniors aged 50-80 organized by a travel agency from Shanghai. When the tragedy happened, most people onboard were about to sleep. The cruise tour was expected to last about 10 days at more than 2,000 yuan per ticket, according to relatives of the passengers.
7. The ship, named dongfangzhixing or Eastern Star, belongs to Chongqing Easter Shipping Company. It was headed to Chongqing from Nanjing. It is a mid-sized ship and is 76 meters long and 11 meters wide. It can resist wind up to level 10 on the Beaufort scale table. Initial investigations found that the ship was not overloaded and was equipped with life jackets. Those rescued all wore life jackets.
8. The ship is submerged upside down in 15-meter-deep water at Damazhou Waterway in Jianli county, Hubei province, about 301 kilometers from the shipping route at the middle reaches of Yangtze River.
9. Hubei issued the yellow alerts on rainstorms on the day the tragedy happened.
10. The State Council described the ship wreck as the Eastern Star Ship Wreck Caused by Strong Wind and Heavy Rains. Hubei provincial meteorological agencies said that radar analysis found the existence of a cyclone due to the fierce wind accelerated to level 12 on the Beaufort scale table in an instant.
