Relatives of missing passengers kept in dark as China steps up search operation

Zhu Dan from Nanjing in eastern China has little hope that her grandparents are still alive. Her grandmother, Zhang Lin, (80) and grandfather, Zhu Zengxiu (81), were holidaying on the Eastern Star, the cruise ship that capsized in the Yangtze river on Monday night in a freak tornado.

"There is nothing we can do now except wait for news. I don't have any hope left now after so many hours of searching," Ms Zhu tells The Irish Times.

“They were old but they were in very good health. But I am not sure if they are even going to find the bodies,” she says.

Dozens of divers combed the submerged vessel yesterday for more than 400 missing travellers, many of them elderly tourists, as hopes for their survival dimmed.

The death toll so far is 18, but the fate of many of the 456 on board, ranging in age from three years to those in their 80s, is still unclear. Like Ms Zhu, many families remain in the dark as to the fate of their relatives.

Security is tight around the site of the sinking and we are refused access when we try to get near the river, and also when we try to access the crematorium where DNA testing is taking place on the bodies taken from the ship.

Worst shipping disaster

It is shaping up to be China’s worst shipping disaster in almost 70 years.

Media reporting has been restricted, and live broadcasts from the site have been suspended.

The ship was travelling from Nanjing, in eastern China, to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it got into trouble at about 9.28pm.

Much debate is taking place online about how the incident happened. The captain and the chief engineer say the Eastern Star capsized during a freak tornado on the river on Monday and apparently sank within two minutes, but doubts have been expressed about how that could happen.

The rescue operation is extremely well organised, with more than 1,000 special police officers, dozens of troops, and 140 navy divers at the site. More than 40 small boats are also taking part in the operations, and six helicopters have come from Beijing and Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, three hours’ drive from Jianli.

The search has a wide ambit, right along the river, which was swollen with floodwaters when the ferry sank.

Emergency workers are searching up to 220km downstream, as fast-flowing currents could have swept bodies downriver.

As you come off the dual-carriageway to drive on smaller country roads to get to Jianli, a tent with police officers has been set up to receive those coming to find out the fate of their relatives.

Solidarity

At regular intervals along the road, cars and vans have yellow ribbons wrapped around their mirrors or aerials as a sign of solidarity with the missing, similar to what happened in the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

En route to the crematorium, convoys of vans carrying relatives zip past to the various nearby hotels where they are being housed.

Outside the crematorium, where the police are doing DNA testing to identify the bodies, a tearful young woman argues with a police officer, who is unsympathetic.

A line of blue-shirted police officers form a cordon, and various emergency vehicles wait, including several excavators, a row of special police trucks and some vans.

“We are doing the DNA testing first after we found the bodies. You have to go back to the hotel and wait for official information. I can’t give you any information right now but I understand how you must feel,” the police officer says.

The young woman pleads with the officer. “My family called me yesterday saying that the police had come to my home to get things to test for my grandparents DNA. I am not sure if it is good news or bad news. Can I know how many bodies have been found?”

The policeman shakes his head and the young woman slowly climbs into a van, heading back to her hotel for an impossible wait.

At the Jinbaoli Hotel, emergency workers are trying to get some rest before heading back to the river. “We are responsible for the security around the site,” says one officer.

At the Jianli People’s Hospital, families are waiting to access the survivors who have been brought here for treatment. It’s a giant, modern facility, some of it still under construction.

One nurse, rushing to the emergency area from the ward where the survivors are being cared for, takes a few seconds to talk about the situation.

“We have received 14 people here. I think most of the people were sent here because it is close. Also some were sent to Yueyang.

“They are all pretty stable now, the ones who were sent here,” she said, before rushing off again.

Premier Li Keqiang called for “regular and transparent updates” on the rescue and investigation. He returned to Beijing yesterday.

Oil

Chinese state television CCTV ran footage of one diver who went deep down to search.

“The space down there is very limited and it is full of oil. It’s very difficult to breathe down there,” he said.

In Shanghai, at the Xiehe travel agency, where many passengers, most of them retirees aged between 50-80, made their bookings, a sign on the door says the owner was at the site and couldn’t take questions.

Footage online shows a desolate young man sitting on the floor outside the locked door, saying “Mum and Dad, I was wrong. I should never have let you go on holiday.”