Scores of divers searched a capsized ship in the Yangtze River on Wednesday for more than 400 missing people, many of them elderly tourists, as the death toll in what could be China's worst shipping disaster in almost 70 years doubled to 14.
State television carried pictures of rescuers, some standing on the upturned hull of the stricken Eastern Star cruise ship, working through the night. So far their efforts have yielded few successes, with only 14 people found alive.
Among the few rescued was an elderly woman who had been trapped in an air pocket in the ship, which capsized during a freak tornado on the river on Monday night.
The Yangtze disaster could have a higher death toll than the 304 people killed when a ferry sank in South Korea in April 2014. Most of those killed in that incident were children on a school trip.
The Yangtze search area has been expanded up to 220km (135 miles) downstream, state television said, suggesting that many bodies could have been swept far away from where the ship foundered in the rain-swollen river.
Relatives, angry at what they perceive as a lack of information, have scuffled with officials in Shanghai. All of the passengers on board had booked their trips through a Shanghai-based travel agency.
Early on Wednesday, about two dozen affected family members, some crying and others shouting "help us", marched down streets in central Shanghai towards the main government office watched by a heavy police presence.
A passenger manifest carried by state media showed those on board the Eastern Star ranged in age from three to more than 80. There were 456 people on board when the ship capsized.
