Chinese ship sinks with at least 450 on board
A ship carrying more than 450 people has sunk after being caught in a storm on the Yangtze River in southern China, according to state media.
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The Xinhua News Agency said eight people had been rescued so far and work was under way to save the remaining passengers.
Prime Minister Li Keqiang is travelling to the scene, state media said.
The vessel had been travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west when it sank.
The ship, the Dongfangzhixing - or Eastern Star - had been carrying 405 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and 47 crew, Xinhua said.
The captain and the chief engineer, who are among those rescued, were quoted as saying that the ship had been caught in a cyclone and sank quickly.
Rescue work was being hampered by strong winds and heavy rain, the report added. The sinking happened in the Jianli county of Hubei Province.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the vessel was owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation which runs tours to the scenic Three Gorges river canyon area along the Yangtze river.
Those on board had mostly been tourists aged around 50 to 80 on a tour organised by a Shanghai company, the People's Daily reported.
It quoted the Yangtze River navigation administration as saying that the wreck was lying upside down.
Twenty-two people died on the river in January, when a tugboat undergoing tests capsized near Zhangjiagang, in Jiangsu province.