Over 400 people are missing as a Chinese cruise ship capsized during a rainstormon the Yangtze River.
Most of the crew of 458 were 50 to 80 years old.
Rescuers could hear the passengers trapped in the sunken ship.
The captain and engineer were among the twenty people rescued.
The New York Times reported:
Most of the 458 people aboard a chartered cruise ship in China were still missing on Tuesday morning, more than a dozen hours after the vessel sank during a torrential rainstorm along the central Yangtze River, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.
Just 13 people had been rescued, local news media reported, making this perhaps the worst passenger maritime disaster in East Asia since the sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol last year.
The water where the boat sank is about 50 feet deep. Rescuers could hear the sounds of people trapped inside, according to a Twitter post by China Central Television, the main state network. The ship, whose name translates as Oriental Star, was crossing Hubei Province in the middle of the country when it sank at 9:28 p.m. on Monday, Xinhua reported, citing the Yangtze River Navigation Administration. Rescue work was hampered by strong winds and heavy rain.
Most of the passengers were 50 to 80 years old and had been traveling on a group tour, according to Hubei Daily.
13 rescued from capsized ship in Yangtze River in C China http://t.co/r7PeJkOwBy pic.twitter.com/BmAcRZ6YL7
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) June 2, 2015