By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING

Rescuers are preparing to upright a cruise ship that capsized with more than 450 people on board on the Yangtze River in China late Monday.

China's Hubei Daily reported Thursday that cranes would attempt to turn the ship upright, and then lift it to drain out water to aid in the search for survivors.

The lifting appliance will be ready before 8 p.m. (0100GMT), it said, adding that the operation will last around 5 hours.

Since Monday, rescuers have recovered 77 bodies from the boat, a news conference at the rescue center said Thursday.

China Central Television reported that 14 people survived, while more than 360 are still missing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior Communist Party of China leaders have called on rescuers to "take all possible measures" to save lives.

Earlier Thursday, rescuers cut three holes at strategic spots in the upside-down hull in an effort to reach those inside.

They then began to pull out corpses, quickly resealing the holes if no survivors were found to avoid further sinking.

The Dongfangzhixing (Eastern Star) sank Monday night in Jianli, central Hubei Province, with around 400 passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crewmembers on board - most of them reported to be elderly.

China's state news agency Xinhua reported the ship's captain and chief engineer, who both survived the incident, as saying Wednesday that the boat sank "within one or two minutes" of being caught in a tornado. 

With air supplies dwindling for any of those still trapped inside, the incident could become China's deadliest shipping accident in almost seven decades. 

"The ship sank in a very short time frame, so there could still be air trapped in the hull," Li Qixiu of the Naval University of Engineering told Xinhua. 

"That means there could still be survivors."

He added that with air in closed spaces thinning over time "the longer it takes, the less likely we will be able to find survivors."

"We are racing against time, but we are not going to give up," he said.

Divers attempts to retrieve survivors have been hampered by zero visibility in the muddy water of the river, along with the intricate layout of the 76.5-meter vessel, and strong winds and heavy rain.

Adding to complications is that the escape of any air trapped inside the hull during the rescue mission could cause the ship to lose what buoyancy it has and sink deeper

Most of those on board had joined the ship in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on May 28 for a journey to Chongqing Municipality on the upper reaches of China's longest river.

Xinhua reported that tickets for the cruise costing between 1,098 and 2,298 Yuan ($177- $370).

Passengers were scheduled to visit tourist attractions during the daytime and return to the boat in the evening.

The ship's captain and chief engineer are now in police custody.

China's president and Communist Party leaders have demanded a serious investigation into the cause of the incident.