At least 150 people are dead and more than 100 missing after a ferry in stormy seas burned and broke apart off China’s northeastern coast, official news media reported Friday.
Reports said 36 survivors had been found from the ship. One account said the vessel had been carrying 312 passengers and crew members. A second report put the number aboard at 336.
Sixteen-foot waves and freezing temperatures hampered the rescue effort near the port city of Yantai, in Shandong province. A helicopter, dozens of ships and thousands of soldiers and residents along the shoreline joined in the search for survivors, which occurred 1 1/2 miles offshore, the New China news agency said.
The ship, which belonged to the Yanda Ferry Company in Shandong, left Yantai on Wednesday afternoon for what is normally a seven-to-eight-hour journey 100 miles north to the city of Dalian.
It was forced to turn back because of the extreme conditions, but then around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, flames were discovered on the second deck, and the ship sent out a distress signal, the news agency said. The wind and waves prevented other ships from immediately approaching.
Some four hours later, apparently engulfed by fire, the ship began drifting. That evening it apparently started to break up, and at least parts of it sank, according to New China.
There were no foreigners on board, the China Daily said.
A survivor, a 28-year-old man, told the French news agency Agence France-Presse that around 4 p.m. Wednesday, all the passengers rushed to the upper deck because of heavy smoke from below, where some 60 cars were making the trip.
“I decided to jump into the water because the smoke was so strong it was hard to breathe,” he said, adding that he and five other men had jumped at once. He lost track of the others and swam for an hour, he said, before reaching the shore.
Local officials said many bodies had washed ashore, along with a few people who were found unconscious but still alive.
State television showed a beach littered with thousands of oranges, apples and other apparent wreckage, including what appeared to be at least three life rafts.
According to local news media, this was the second accident in five weeks for a vessel operated by Yanda Ferry Co. In October, a ship caught fire and sank near Dalian, but all but three people were rescued.
