Tributes to hundreds of boat tragedy victims

Nearby ships blared horns for three minutes and rescuers bowed in silence to honour more than 430 victims of the Yangtze River capsizing, as specialists began working on DNA samples from relatives to identify the dead.

The toll from last Monday’s overturning of the Eastern Star cruise ship rose to 431 dead with 11 people still missing, said Hu Kaihong, the vice director-general of the press bureau of the State Council Information Office.

Fourteen people survived, including three who were pulled by divers from the overturned hull on Tuesday.

After the ship was pulled upright by cranes and thoroughly checked by yesterday, the search for additional bodies turned to the river downstream, Hu said.

Authorities planned to expand the search from the Hubei province disaster site to as far east as Shanghai, more than 1,000km away.

Transport minister Yang Chuantang presided over the ceremony on the deck of a ship next to the Eastern Star, saying simply “please observe silence”.

Hundreds of members of the military, police and others took off their hats and bowed as vessels blared their horns.

State broadcaster CCTV showed some relatives also bowing as they watched the event on television from where they were staying in nearby Jianli county.

Yesterday marked the first commemorative event in the Chinese cycle of mourning.