New | Relatives anxious to bid final farewell to dead in China's Eastern Star cruise ship disaster
Family members negotiating with officials to allow them to conduct mourning rituals
Grieving families on Friday demanded to be allowed to perform rituals this weekend for the hundreds feared dead in a capsized ship on the Yangtze River.
The demands came as recovery crews lifted the top four floors of the Eastern Star from the water and started searching its cabins for more bodies.
They did not find as many bodies underwater as expected with the lifting of the floors, Xinhua reported. As of 7pm, 103 bodies had been recovered, with 14 survivors, CCTV reported.
In all, 456 people were on board when the ship went down in the Jianli section of the river on Monday night.
"We want [the government] to organise for us to carry out mourning rituals on the riverside because it will be soon," one relative said. , or the seventh day after death, is an important day to commemorate the departed in Chinese tradition.
The relatives said they were negotiating with local authorities and willing to conduct the rituals away from the recovery site to avoid hindering the operation.
