A ship carrying 458 people sank late Monday in the Hubei section of China’s Yangtze River, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.
The captain and the chief engineer were reportedly rescued. Both claimed the ship sank after being caught in a cyclone, Xinhua said.
The agency said eight people have been rescued and that rescue efforts were being complicated by bad weather.
The ship was headed from Nanjing to Chongqing, an interior city, Xinhua reported. It said of the 458 believed to be on board, there were 405 were passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members.