Capsized Yangtze River Cruise Boat Is Righted, With Hundreds Still Missing

Chinese authorities have now fully righted the cruise ship which capsized on the Yangtze River on Monday night, but with nearly 340 people still missing, and 103 bodies recovered from the site, the incident is set to be the country's deadliest shipping disaster in seven decades. The focus of the rescue mission has now changed from pulling out survivors to retrieving dead bodies.

On Friday morning, cranes pulled up the Eastern Star, which was ferrying tourists mostly aged between 50 and 80 from Nanjing to Chongqing in southern China. Only 14 out of 456 passengers are known to have survived, including the ship's captain and the first engineer, who have been placed under police custody.

Update: Capsized cruise ship Eastern Star has been righted — China Xinhua News (@XHNews)June 5, 2015

The ship capsized on Monday night after sudden high winds, although questions have been raised by the passengers' relatives about whether the cruise ship should have continued on despite a weather warning being issued earlier in the evening.

According to a Nanjing's Maritime Safety report, records show that the capsized boat was cited for safety violations during an inspection in 2013, although the violations have not been specified.

Related: Hundreds Missing After Cruise Ship Capsizes on China's Yangtze River

Distraught relatives have gathered at the disaster site in the Hubei province country of Jianli, demanding answers. "All the emphasis is on a natural disaster," said Xia Yunchen, a 70-year-old university lecturer whose older brother was a passenger. "Apart from natural disaster were there other causes? Is this not rational to ask?"

On Wednesday night, dozens of passengers' families broke through a police cordon around the disaster site. Police and paramilitary troops have been stationed on the riverbank, blocking access to the site.

Xia also demanded that relatives should be allowed to see their loved ones' bodies before they are cremated. The recovered bodies from the disaster site are being taken to the Jianli's Rongcheng Crematorium, where in past disasters, authorities have cremated bodies and delivered ashes to the victims' families.

"Why do you view the common people as your enemies?" Xia cried out. "There's no human feeling, can't we change this habit?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.