14 missing found dead in boat tragedy

Divers prepare to carry out underwater searching on the Bailong Lake in Guangyuan, Southwest China's Sichuan province, June 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The nine-day search for survivors after a boating accident in Guangyuan, Sichuan province has come to a sad end, with all 14 missing people found dead.

By midday on Sunday, the operation had retrieved all the bodies from the water, according to Yang Mingguang, deputy chief of the Guangyuan municipal government information office.

The accident happened on the afternoon of June 4 when a leisure boat with 18 people onboard capsized in gales on White Dragon Lake, in the Lizhou district of Guangyuan, the northernmost city in Sichuan.

One seven-year-old girl died in hospital after she was rescued. Three adults survived, while the bodies of 14 people, including five young women and four children, were found dead. The dead included Zhou Piqiang, the vessel's 49-year-old owner, his wife Wang Xingju, 43, and their son Zhou Lin, 4.

The boat's 15 passengers were from six families, five of which included husbands, wives and children.

Some of the photos taken by passengers with cellphones, just before the sudden storm sank the boat, went viral, prompting sympathy from netizens for the passengers, which included adults aged around 30 and children aged between three and five years.

A source from the Guangyuan maritime affairs bureau said the boat's owner, Zhou, had operated boat excursions since the 1990s, and his wife was a qualified sailor.

The local weather bureau said the boat, which was designed to carry 40 passengers, sank in extreme weather conditions when wind speeds of 17.5 meters per second were recorded.

According to Wang Mingxing, one of the three survivors, some people were initially wearing life jackets, but they took them off later because it was too hot.

Wang, 30, grabbed a jacket when the boat started sinking. He was washed ashore while swimming.