Mourning ceremonies for China ship dead as toll rises

Ceremonies have been held to remember the hundreds of people who died in Monday's Chinese cruise ship disaster.

On Sunday the death toll rose to 431, with only 11 still missing as rescuers continue to sweep the Yangtze river.
Earlier, state television showed officials and rescuers bowing their heads towards the ship as nearby vessels sounded their horns.
More than 1,400 family members were expected to gather near the river for their own remembrance ceremonies.






     Media caption Just 14 people on board the ship survived, as Janey Mitchell reports
The ship, the Eastern Star, capsized in a storm on Monday and was turned upright in an operation on Friday.
Why did cruise ship capsize?
Sunday marks the seventh day since the ship went down, the traditional Chinese date at which to mourn the dead.
Just 14 of the 456 passengers and crew are known to have survived, among them is the ship's captain.
The tragedy looks set to be China's worst shipping disaster in more than 60 years of Communist rule.

Distraught relatives remembered family members who perished

On Friday, hooks were welded onto the four-storey ship and a net stretched around the entire structure in order to lift it by crane.
Most of the bodies retrieved were inside the vessel. Following the ship's raising, the death toll jumped by 200 people.
Rescuers are now sweeping a 1,300 km stretch of the river that extends from Jianli, Hubei Province where the ship capsized, to the port city of Shanghai.
At the time of the disaster, Chinese officials promised there would be "no cover-up" as to the cause of the disaster.
Family members have been provided with accommodation and medical services while Vice Premier Mai Kai met with some of the relatives.
Despite this, many of the grieving protested at the site of the crash, frustrated by the government's lack of information.
Authorities have tightly controlled access to the site, leading family members and journalists to complain.

The Eastern Star

• The 76m-long, 2,200-tonne ship was named Dongfangzhixing in Chinese
• It was carrying 405 passengers - mostly elderly tourists but also one three-year-old - as well as five travel agency employees and 46 crew members.
• The ship is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, and passengers had booked their trip through a travel agency in Shanghai.
• The cruise left the eastern city of Nanjing in April and was travelling to Chongqing in the south-west via the Three Gorges - a journey of at least 1,500km (930 miles).

In pictures: Ship righted
Yangtze River tragedy on trip of a lifetime
Could Mei-yu weather front be behind disaster?
Questions raised over Eastern Star's sinking