Death toll in China cruise ship disaster reaches 396

At least 396 people were confirmed dead after a cruise liner carrying more than 450 people capsized in China on Monday.

Rescue teams have now stabilised the Eastern Star in an upright position in the search for more victims after the vessel overturned on the Yangtze River.

Although severe winds have been blamed for the incident, the captain and his first engineer have both been held in police custody.

Passengers' relatives have raised questions about whether the ship should have continued its cruise after the storm started in a section of Hubei province, despite a weather warning earlier in the evening.

Fourteen people survived the capsizing, including three pulled out of air pockets in the overturned hull by divers on Tuesday.

Many of the people aboard the ship were elderly tourists.

Disaster teams placed chains around the hull and used cranes to roll the boat upright and then gradually lift it out of the currents of the river on Friday.

The Eastern Star disaster could become the country's worst since the sinking of the SS Kiangya off Shanghai in 1948, which is believed to have killed between 2,750 and 4,000 people.

PA