Rescue workers in China are working to save passengers of a ship that capsized during a storm.
According to USA Today, the Eastern Star was sailing along the Yangtze River with 458 passengers it began to capsize on Monday night. The ship’s hull is still visible while the rest of the ship is upside down.
Xinhua News reported that both the ship’s captain and chief engineer were rescued and said the ship got caught in a storm’s cyclone before it sank.
BBC News reported that the passengers on board consisted of mostly elderly tourists traveling from China’s Nanjing to Chongqing. Five people have been reported dead while around 15 survived.
One survivor, Zhang Hui, survived for 10 hours by holding onto debris in the river as he was trapped in the water. He was able to obtain a life jacket and despite the rough weather, he kept telling himself, “’Just hang in there a little while longer.’”
A 65-year-old survivor was found by divers, who taught her how to use a breathing apparatus so she could be brought to safety. Chen Shoumin, a region commander with the with the Hubei military, said “That old woman had a very strong will and learned very fast, and after 20 minutes she surfaced to the water and was rescued.”
The ship managed to drift downstream and was close enough to the shore that rescuers hoped air pockets inside the ship would allow passengers to breathe.