Local authorities said on Thursday they believed the sunken passenger liner had been carrying 35 people when it was hit by a freighter earlier in the day.

They listed 23 of the passengers as dead or missing.

But by yesterday afternoon, the official estimate of the numbers missing had been revised upwards to 49. Ten bodies have also been recovered by rescuers. Only 12 survivors have been found.

The first victim to be identified was 17-year-old student Wang Xue from Fuling District of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, where the tragedy happened.

Her body was found on the day of the accident, but only identified late on Saturday after inquiries were made at more than 170 villages in the district.

The passengers on board included students on holiday and vegetable sellers on their way to market.

Sources with the local authority said victims aged 16 or above would be paid 50,000 yuan (US$6,039) in compensation and those under 16 could claim 40,000 yuan (US$4,831) in compensation.

Relatives of victims whose bodies are recovered can be compensated immediately. Those whose family members are still missing will receive part of the compensation sum upfront, with the remainder payable 30 days later, China News Service reported.

The Yangtze River Three Gorges Shipping Company and Jianglong Company, the owners of the two ships, have allocated 1 million yuan (US$121,000) each for the compensation fund. The local district government contributed another 1 million yuan.

Normally, compensation is paid only after a case is investigated and responsibility for the accident is determined. But the local authority has bent its rules in response to the tragedy and decided to compensate the victims' families as soon as possible.

The accident probably resulted from the decision to take to the water despite the foggy weather, in breach of local sailing regulations, said sources with the Navigation Management Bureau for the Yangtze River under the Ministry of Communication in Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province.

Some of the survivors said there was a heavy fog at the time of the accident and it was impossible to see the banks of the river.

Experts said while the cause of the tragedy is still being investigated, it was not linked to rising water levels at the nearby Three Gorges Dam.

Yao Yusheng, an engineer with the Navigation Management Bureau, said the collision occurred 570 kilometers up the Yangtze River, more than 80 kilometers from the edge of the reservoir, Xinhua reported.

"It is still the natural river channel and has nothing to do with the dam," he said.

(China Daily June 23, 2003)