The decision to upright the Eastern Star cruise ship was made as chances for finding more survivors in the ship have become increasingly slim, said Xu Chengguang, spokesman with the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

Detection equipment used in recent searches has failed to locate any signs of life, Xu said at a press conference on Thursday evening, three days after the ship carrying over 450 people capsized in a freak tornado in Hubei Province. About 360 remain missing.

"We believe chances for finding more survivors in the ship have become increasingly slim. We have made the general judgment that there is no possibility of survival," he said.

Xu explained the decision to lift and upright the capsized wreckage would help find the missing "in the shortest possible time" and "protect the dignity of the deceased" as much as possible.

A total of 91 people have been found, including 14 survivors, after the cruise ship carrying mostly elderly tourists sank in the Jianli (Hubei province) stretch of the Yangtze on Monday night.