Hopes are fading of finding any more survivors of a cruise ship disaster in China.

More than 400 people, many of them elderly tourists, are still missing after the Eastern Star boat capsized on the Yangtze river during a freak tornado.

Rescue efforts are continuing, but so far only 14 people have been found alive.

One of the search divers described a difficult operation.

“There are too many things moving in the cabin,” said Zhang Hucheng.

“The ship was overturned, so many things are displaced. And we are worried about tangling ropes when we are diving.”

The Eastern Star was heading to the southwestern city of Chongqing from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. It capsized in the Jianli section of the Yangtze.

The search area has been expanded up to 220 kilometres downstream, suggesting that many bodies could have been swept away.

Meanwhile, China’s Premier Li Keqianq has been visiting survivors in hospital.

An elderly woman, who had been trapped in an air pocket