By Mahmut Atanur
BEIJING
The first 26 victims of China's worst ferry disaster in 60 years have been cremated, ten days after the Eastern Star capsized on the Yangtze River with 456 on board.
State news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that the cremations of the 434 dead were underway.
"The mortuary has received the bodies of 219 victims, of which 76 have been identified by their families,” it reported Xia Yanhai from Jianli's Civil Affairs Bureau as saying.
"The families of 51 victims have agreed to have the victims' bodies cremated [and] 26 bodies have been cremated."
It added that relatives of the victims were now being allowed to retrieve their loved-one's belongings from a funeral home in Jianli County, central Hubei province, near the site of last week's disaster.
Of the 456 people on-board the vessel when it was hit by a freak tornado on June 1 near Jianli, only 14 survivors have been found.
Meanwhile, eight others remain missing.
Most of those on the multi-decked, 77-meter-long vessel were retirees on an 11-day trip from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing Municipality on the upper reaches of China's longest river.
Xinhua reported Thursday that the boat has been moved around 10 kilometers upstream from where it capsized after officials became concerned it may begin breaking apart amid the monsoon season water flows of the accident site.
Prior to the boat being righted and hoisted from the water June 5, more than 200 divers had searched underwater for any survivors who may have been trapped in air pockets.
China's president and Communist Party leaders have demanded a serious investigation into the cause of the incident.
