DIVERS pulled three people alive from a capsized cruise ship on the Yangtze river in China yesterday but more than 400 people remained missing.

The number rescued stood at 15, with five people confirmed dead, after the ship with 458 people aboard capsized in a storm on Monday night.

The cruise was from Nanjing to the south-western city of Chongqing, and many of those aboard were elderly.

Some of the survivors swam ashore but others were rescued more than 12 hours after the ship went down, after search teams climbed aboard the upside-down hull and heard trapped survivors calling from inside.

The overturned ship had drifted almost two miles downstream before coming to rest close to the river shore, where choppy waters made the rescue difficult.

Divers pulled out a 65-year-old woman and, later, two men who had been trapped. More people had been found and were being rescued.