PRESIDENT Xi Jinping demanded a serious investigation into the cause of the sinking of a cruise ship on the Yangtze River, which has left 77 people dead and over 370 missing as of Thursday evening.

    Xi called a special meeting of the Party’s Political Bureau Standing Committee on Thursday, the highest body in the country, to discuss the disaster as families gathered near the rescue site to demand answers.

    The committee called on rescuers to “take all possible measures” to save the injured and urged a “serious investigation into the cause of the incident.”

    They also stressed that “the work of appeasing the families is very important” and called on local authorities to “understand the families’ grief, carry out appeasement efforts and earnestly safeguard social stability.”

    They promised timely, accurate and transparent releases of information from the investigation.

    Authorities are investigating the crew members who were rescued from the Eastern Star, which capsized in a freak tornado Monday night, the spokesman for the Ministry of Transport Xu Chengguang said.

    “We will never shield mistakes and we’ll absolutely not cover up (anything),” Xu said, adding that a preliminary investigation had begun.

    Rescuers are continuing search of the ship, which was carrying many elderly Chinese tourists, despite the fading hopes of relatives. They began righting the capsized cruise ship at 8 p.m. Thursday.

    Only 14 survivors, including the captain and chief engineer, have been found since the ship carrying 456 people capsized.

    Police have detained the captain and chief engineer for questioning. An initial investigation found the ship was not overloaded and had enough life vests on board.

    The ship had been on an 11-day voyage upstream from Nanjing, near Shanghai, to Chongqing.

    Relatives have asked the government to release the names of survivors and the dead.

    (Xinhua)

    (Photo Highlights on P6)