The rescue operation in China’s Yangtze River following the freak tornado.

More than 400 people including many elderly tourists are still missing after a cruise boat was capsized by a tornado on China’s Yangtze River, on Monday night. Rescuers are still reportedly searching for missing people of the ill-fated boat in the bad weather. Dozens of rescue boats battled wind and rain to reach the cruiser, which lay upturned in 15 meters of water.

Out of 458 people who were on board, as reported by the state media, divers and rescue workers surfaced five people trapped in the capsized hull of deck number four of Eastern Star.

After China’s seemingly worst shipping disaster in about 70 years, family of the passengers expressed anger in Shanghai with officials, where many of the victims had booked their trip, and complained of a lack of information.

Rescuers could hear people calling out from inside the ship and television showed rescuers cutting through the hull with tools, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A 65-year-old woman had to have breathing equipment attached to her nose and mouth to bring her up from under the water by rescue divers.

About a dozen people have been rescued and six bodies recovered, media reported, leaving more than 430 people unaccounted for.

A freak tornado hit the area where the boat was, a seldom occurrence in a country where tornados are not common, said China’s weather bureau.