A Chinese passenger ferry capable of carrying 300 people sank today after colliding with another boat in heavy fog on the Yangtze River.
It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the ferry when it sank after hitting a freighter. The passenger boat, owned by the Chongqing Three Gorges Shipping Co, could carry 300 people.
At least three bodies were recovered and 12 survivors were pulled from the river near the western city of Chongqing. Most of the ferry passengers were students and farmers.
An official at the Fuling Jianglong Shipping Co said its freighter was empty at the time of the accident. Police have detained the crew of the freighter.
Boat collisions are common on the wide and fast-flowing river, which runs 3,900 miles from western China to the sea near the eastern city of Shanghai.
Last year, more than 70 were killed in another ferry collision in Chongqing. In 1999, a ferry caught fire and sank in stormy seas off the coast of Shandong province, killing 282 people.