E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Tyrone Siu / Reuters
Rescuers search for survivors in a partially-submerged boat after two vessels collided in Hong Kong waters on Monday.
Updated at 11:16 p.m. ET: At least 36 people died and dozens were injured when a ferry carrying more than 120 people on a company outing collided with another ferry and sank near an island south of Hong Kong on Monday night in one of the city's worst maritime accidents.
The ferry belonging to the Hong Kong Electric Company was taking staff and family members to watch a fireworks display to celebrate China's National Day and mid-autumn festival when it hit the other ship and quickly began sinking near Lamma island.
Some survivors said people had to break windows to swim to the surface. "We thought we were going to die. Everyone was trapped inside," said another middle-aged woman.
Teams of men in white coats, green rubber gloves and yellow helmets carried corpses off a police launch in body bags on Tuesday. Local media reported that children were among the dead.
More than 100 people were sent to five hospitals and nine people suffered serious injuries or remain in critical condition, the government said in a statement.
The search for victims would continue overnight on Tuesday, the fire department said, because it was uncertain whether there were more people unaccounted for in the incident.
The crash took place at 8:23 p.m. as a boat was traveling from Lamma Island towards the main island of Hong Kong to view the National Day fireworks display.
It was hit by a passenger ferry that regularly travels the 40-minute route between Hong Kong's Central District to Yung Shue Wan, a former fishing village on Lamma that is now favored by tourists and expatriate professionals.
More than 120 people were aboard the Hong Kong utility vessel.
"Low visibility and many obstacles on board" made rescue difficult, according to the fire department.
Many passengers trapped in the flooded upturned ferry before it sank, Reuters reported, citing survivors.
"The rear of the ferry started to sink," a survivor told the Post. "I suddenly found myself deep under the sea. I swam hard and tried to grab a life buoy. I don’t know where my two kids are."
Richard A. Brooks / AFP - Getty Images
A victim is carried ashore by rescue personnel after a ferry carrying about 120 people collided with another commercial vessel off Hong Kong late Monday.
The government initially said a ferry collided with a tugboat.
Later, it said both boats were passenger vessels, but did not give details.
Several local media outlets reported that the second boat was a ferry operated by Hong Kong & Kowloon ferry.
That vessel was carrying about 100 passengers, some of whom were slightly injured, the South China Morning Post, citing Radio and Television Hong Kong.
"Relevant government departments are making all-out efforts to rescue people who fell into the sea after the collision. Senior officials and I will closely monitor the situation. We will do whatever we can for remedial actions,” said Hong Kong's top government official Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Monday night.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Israelis are prepared — or not — for an Iran attack
- Colonial sins return to haunt former world powers
- Experts: Four leopards being killed each week for skins in India
- In Iran, sanctions bite and currency collapses
- Trial of pope's ex-butler over leaked papers begins
- 'Lady whisperer': Cabbie snaps topless female passengers
- After decades in exile, Libyan president ready to die for democracy
- Amid Syria's civil war violence, a strange calm in the capital
- Royal censorship? BBC 'sorry' for daring to report queen's comments
- Stay informed: Sign up for our newsletter
Leave a Comment:
I agree. The picture of the victim and the quote from the man who couldn't find his children, remind us all how we all hurt the same as human beings when we are faced with situations like this.
I knew a guy who once took a ferry to Athens. Or was that a fairy? Long time ago.
And Hong Kong Fooey could have saved them too.
I have often wondered how all those vessels stay safely apart in those crazy busy waters.
What is it about FERRY CRASHES in the news in the last several months? India, China, South Pacific (I think it was Australia) -- this makes me NEVER want to ride a ferry ever again! ACK!
Condolences and prayers go to the victims' family and friends.
I am curious how with all the modern navigation equipment, like AIS transponders(which indicates a vessels size, position, direction, and speed, which even recreational boats of any serious size carry, how they managed to hit each other. Unless there was a engine failure or something like that.
I guess with you tend to let your guard down in clear weather and you have been running a route for a long time and nothing happens.
You need to visit Hong Kong sometime.
Modern navigation equipment is for the most part the exception in the inner harbor between Hong Kong and Kowloon...
Head hunters and tribal types running passenger ferries. Yikes.
The waterways are becoming heavier in traffic. I went on board those ferries many years when I was working in Asia. At 2010, I stopped taking them. It is more expensive to take the subway to cross the harbor. But I believed it is not if but when accident would be happen. People should learn not to drive as they were driving cars in HK. That is also bad.
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world..things like this is normal there. Over 7 million people crammed into 426 square miles and not all of that is land.
Reminds me of NYC..468 sq miles (not all land) with 8 million people.
Another death trap!
Hong Kong: 145,000 people per km2
But this accident happened on the water... population density had nothing to do with the accident.
Victoria Harbor is one of the busiest waterways in the world. People live on boats in that Harbor. Alot of people. It was crowded 30 years ago, and has only gotten worse. Do abit of research on it and you`ll discover that population density has everything to do with this accident.
My deepest sympathies to all involved. I have spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and have travelled the waterways there often and have wondered why there were'nt more accidents like this. the harbour is extremely busy with large and small craft everywhere at all times of the day and night. I hope the passenger who could'nt find his kids has a happy ending.
What gets me is the unprecedented number of these ferry accidents happen to those of asian ancestry and asian countries. Why is this?
Because public transportation in the Western Pacific involves water.
And water born ferrys. Lots of water and water born craft called boats, which sometimes collide, swamp, succum to weather and otherwise sink...
Please Bill tell me you`re not trolling...please.
India has their fair share of accidents too. It's all about moving bodies. Safety isn't even on the radar. Buses in Nepal are totally overloaded with people, animals, produce, and whatever else they can stuff in em. If there is room, it goes. Weight and balance have no place in their vocabulary. I've been on two boats that have sank in Thailand. One was becauee of a collision, the other because a fire. Fortunately both were within a mile from shore so help arrived fairly quickly.
I've been to Hong Kong a number of times, visited the New Territories including Lamma. Overloaded ferries, buses, and trains are the norm throughout all of SE Asia. It doesn't matter what country I'm in or who is at the helm (including Sombat or John) I'm on the upper deck day or night.
my heart and pray will be there with the families and relatives of the deceased and injured with critical condition.