MORE than 500 officials and rescuers bowed in mourning towards a battered cruise ship, which capsized during a storm on the Yangtze River last week. The death toll from the disaster reached 431 yesterday, with 11 still missing.

    Only 14 survivors, one of them the captain, have been found since the 2,200-ton ship carrying 456 people overturned in a freak tornado Monday night in Jianli in Hubei Province. Most of the passengers were elderly tourists.

    The four-story ship was righted and raised Friday, allowing rescuers onto it to clear away debris, break down cabin doors and look for the missing. The river is being swept as far away as Shanghai looking for the missing.

    Hu Kaihong, vice director of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office, told reporters that DNA tests were being carried out to identify the bodies and the search is going on.

    Yesterday marked seven days since the Eastern Star went down, and according to Chinese tradition this is a key date on which to mourn the dead.

    State television showed rescue workers and government officials standing on a barge facing the Eastern Star, removing their hats and bowing their heads, as surrounding boats sounded their horns. They set up a table with candles and chrysanthemums on the large floating crane that raised the ship Thursday night.

    Family members also gathered near the river for ceremonies.

    Vice Premier Ma Kai, who has been dispatched to meet family members personally, extended condolences Saturday to relatives of the victims, saying the government sympathized with them and is doing everything possible to help the relatives, including providing free accommodation and medical services.

    The company that operated the ship has apologized for the disaster and said it would “fully” cooperate with the investigation.

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

    The disaster has now claimed more lives than the sinking of a ferry in South Korea in April 2014 that killed 304 people, most of them children on a school trip. It is China’s worst shipping catastrophe in seven decades.(Xinhua)

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