JIANLI, China — Divers pulled three people alive from inside an overturned cruise ship and searched for other survivors Tuesday, state media said, giving some small hope amid an apparently massive tragedy with well over 400 people still missing on the Yangtze River.

Fifteen people were brought to safety and at least five people were confirmed dead after the Eastern Star capsized in Hubei Province during a severe storm Monday night with 458 people aboard, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The cruise was from Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing, and many of those aboard were elderly.

“Looks like we are in trouble,” tour guide Zhang Hui, 43, recalled telling a colleague. In an interview with Xinhua from his hospital bed, he said rain pounded the ship, seeping into cabins, and that heavy listing sent bottles rolling off tables before the ship suddenly went all the way over.

The 43-year-old Zhang said he grabbed a life jacket with seconds to spare and drifted all night despite not being able to swim, reaching shore as dawn approached.

“The raindrops hitting my face felt like hailstones,” he said. “‘Just hang in there a little longer,’ I told myself.”

The survivors included the ship’s captain and chief engineer, both of whom were taken into police custody, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Relatives who gathered in Shanghai, where many of the travelers started their journey by bus, questioned whether the captain did enough to ensure the safety of passengers and demanded answers from local officials in unruly scenes that drew a heavy police response.