Ambulances are ready for rescue work near the site of the overturned passenger ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province June 2, 2015.(Xinhua)
Doctors from Hubei and neighboring provinces are rushing to the site to treat those rescued from a capsized passenger ship that sank in the Yangtze River on Monday night, according to China's top health authority on Tuesday.[Special coverage]
Li Bin, minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, arrived on the scene as a member of the State Council work group and ordered the utmost efforts to treat the injured.
Two orthopaedic trauma specialists and one critical care expert from Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, capital of central Hunan Province, were dispatched to the spot in Jianli County in neighboring Hubei Province.
Psychological intervention experts were also sent to the scene.
Hospitals in Hubei and Hunan have been told to prepare for the injured. A 200-member national emergency medical team is standing by.
Thirteen of the 458 people on board the capsized ship had been rescued as of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Transport.
As of 7 a.m., four of the rescued had been sent to the People's Hospital of Jianli County and were in stable condition.
An investigation found that the ship was not overloaded and was equipped with sufficient life jackets. All those rescued were wearing life jackets, said the ministry.
The ship, named Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star, sank at around 9:28 p.m. in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River, according to the Yangtze River navigation administration.
Carrying 406 passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members, the ship was heading from Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, to southwest China's Chongqing City.
