Hundreds missing as China ship sinks
Five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized on the Yangtze River in China's Hubei province.
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State media said rescuers heard calls from inside the upside-down hull and about a dozen people were rescued.
The boat, the Eastern Star, reportedly sent no emergency signal. The alarm was raised by those who had swum to shore.
The captain and the chief engineer, who both survived, have been detained. They say the boat was caught in a cyclone.
Chinese media quoted them as saying the vessel sank within minutes, while many people were asleep.
Most of those on board were tourists aged around 50 to 80 travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west - a journey of at least 1,500km (930 miles).
The ship sank in the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze, where the world's third longest river reaches depths of about 15m (50ft) deep.
At least 14 people have so far been rescued and some with minor injuries have been taken to hospital, said state media.
The BBC's Jo Floto in Beijing says that China has not seen a disaster on such a scale for a long time.
Thousands of soldiers and rescue personnel have been deployed, and a high-powered salvage ship is on the way to pull the boat upright, reported China Central Television (CCTV).
Footage aired on state TV showed divers knocking on the submerged hull with hammers to try to make contact with people believed to be trapped below.
Rescuers were later seen trying to cut through the ship's hull in a bid to reach five people trapped below. It is not yet clear if they have been brought to safety.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang has arrived at the scene, according to the People's Daily.
Distraught relatives
Eastern Star - Dongfangzhixing in Chinese - had been carrying 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and 47 crew members.
The 76m-long ship weighs 2,200 tons, and could accommodate a maximum of 534 people.
The boat sank at about 21:30 local time on Monday evening (13:30 GMT), but rescuers did not reach the vessel until at least two and a half hours later.
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.
Anxious relatives in Shanghai have gathered outside the company's office, which remains shut. They told reporters that phone calls to their loved ones on board were not getting through.
Sina News reported that a young man was seen sobbing by the door, saying: "Mum and Dad I was wrong, I shouldn't have let you go off on your holiday."
Another relative, Huang Yan, says she believes her husband and father-in-law were on board the boat, but she could not be sure because she had not seen the official passenger manifest, the AP news agency reports.
"Why did the captain leave the ship while the passengers were still missing?'' she asked reporters, adding: "We want the government to release the name list to see who was on the boat."
Credit: The BBC