A Chinese man survived the devastating cruise ship accident in Yangtze River after his wife, trapped in a cabin, asked him to leave her just moments before the ship carrying 456 people capsized.
Wu Jianqiang, 58, was travelling on the cruise ship Eastern Star with his 57-year-old wife Li Xiuzhen when it sank on Monday night after being hit by a tornado in Jianli in central China's Hubei Province.
The couple had come to Nanjing from their home in north China's Tianjin on vacation.
According to Wu's account of the accident, the couple was lying in bed holding hands together when the ship tilted. The bed then slid to one side of the room just as a large amount of water began to flood into the cabin.
Li was then trapped under the heavy bed and could not get free despite Wu's attempts to pull her out.
"Let go!" Li shouted to her husband. Shocked by his wife's request, Wu loosened his grip on his wife's hands and was then pushed outside by the water.
The ship turned completely over at almost the same moment. Wu then swam for several minutes before he was saved, state-run China.Org.Cn reported.
"I might have died if my wife had not let go of my hands," Wu recalled tearfully.
His wife remains unaccounted for.
Fourteen survivors have been rescued, 77 bodies have been found while 300 people are still missing.
