China’s capsized river boat: official death toll 442

The final death toll rose to 442 as the last bodies were found from a riverboat that sank in China’s Yangtze River two weeks ago, a news report said on Sunday.

Only 12 people survived the country’s worst shipping disaster in decades on the boat that had 454 people on board, Xinhua news agency quoted Director of the Yangtze River navigation affairs administration, Tang Guanjun, as saying.

All of the victims have been identified after forensic tests and the bodies have been transferred to their relatives, according to Tang.

As of Saturday, a total of 426 bodies had been cremated.

The Eastern Star was taking passengers on a cruise from Nanjing in eastern China to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it sank in bad weather on June 1 in Jianli, of Hubei province.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is still under way.



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