A cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized at the Yangtze River in China amid severe weather.
A day after the passenger ship capsized, authorities reported finding 12 survivors and five bodies. Rescuers were spotted walking along the overturned ship, trying to cut through it with the help of a blowtorch in a footage broadcast by state-run China Central Television. In addition, a CCTV footage showed that rescuers were even able to talk with people still inside the ship.
When the divers knocked on the ship under water, they heard responses from inside.
The state-run Hubei Daily posted images online that shows rescuers pulling a woman onto the top of the hull, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The cruise ship overturned late Monday, June 1, citing stormy weather along a stretch of the Yangtze that winds through central China's Hubei province, authorities noted.
The state media reported that the bad weather interfered with the initial search and rescue efforts. Divers were in the water by Tuesday morning while workers were walking along part of the ship's upturned hull that stuck out of the water, according to reports on CNN.
For some of those on the cruise ship, the Eastern Star it would have been a once in a lifetime trip.
The captain and the chief engineer of the Eastern Star were among the survivors who were taken into custody by police, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The boat was not overloaded nor there was a shortage of life vests, Xinhua noted.
The captain said the ship that had set out from Nanjing on Thursday, sunk as soon as it was caught in a tornado Monday night. The cruise ship was heading upriver toward the island metropolis of Chongqing following a route popular with tourists that runs through the scenic canyons known as the Three Gorges.
At least 406 passengers, five travel agency staff, along with 47 crew members were onboard at the time the ship sank on Monday.
A 65-year-old woman, whose age was initially given as 85, was pulled alive from the water, official media reported. A total of 14 survivors and five bodies have been recovered so far, according to CCTV.
However, the fates of several others aboard the ship were unclear.
