World News
Final death toll put at 442 from capsized riverboat in China─── 07:08 Mon, 15 Jun 2015
Beijing - 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 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 Tang Guanjun, director of the Yangtze River navigation affairs administration, 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 south-western city of Chongqing when it sank in bad weather on June 1 in Jianli, of Hubei province.
An investigation into the cause of the capsize is still underway.
