Rescuers have found six more bodies Sunday afternoon in a Yellow River Reservoir in central China, raising the victims of a boat accident to 13.

The rescue team succeeded in detecting the sunken boat with four magnetic detectors. Senior diver Sun Jianmin has touched the deck under the silt 61 meters below the water surface in the Xiaolangdi Reservoir in Henan Province.

The salvage operation was expected to make more progress since the sunken boat has been found.

The Ministry of Communications has mustered China's top experts and best equipment to help search for possible survivors and the boat.

The accident occurred at around 8:00 p.m. on June 22 when a boat carrying 69 passengers suddenly capsized in the reservoir on the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Twenty-six people were saved from the boat and 43 were missing. One died on the way to hospital.

All the passengers were staff workers of the Xinghua Fine Chemical Plant in Kaifeng City. By press time there were still 31 people missing.

The provincial tourism administration issued an emergency notice overnight to ban visits in the reservoir during the silt-washing operation.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2004)