DHAKA: Five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province.

State media said rescuers heard calls from inside the upside-down hull and about a dozen people were rescued.

The boat, the Eastern Star, reportedly sent no emergency signal. The alarm was raised by those who had swum to shore.

The captain and the chief engineer, who both survived, have been detained. They say the boat was caught in a cyclone.

Chinese media quoted them as saying the vessel sank within minutes, while many people were asleep.

Most of those on board were tourists aged around 50 to 80 travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west - a journey of at least 1,500km.

The ship sank in the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze, where the world's third longest river reaches depths of about 15m deep, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1649 HRS, JUN 01, 2015
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** Ship carrying 458 people sinks in China