A COLLISION BETWEEN a ferry and another boat killed eight people and injured 45 others off Hong Kong tonight, an official said.
“Up to midnight 53 persons were received by four hospitals and eight were certified dead,” a Hospital Authority spokesman told AFP.
The government said around 120 people were on board the vessels, of whom 101 had been rescued.
Search and rescue teams rushed to the scene of the accident off Lamma island at around 8:20pm, a police spokesman said, as the city celebrated its mid-autumn festival with a massive fireworks display.
Hong Kong chief Leung Chun-ying said the government had mobilised all its resources to respond to the accident.
“All our emergency rescue teams are concentrated there… We can see that bit by bit, the people in the water are being rescued,” he told reporters at a pier where the injured were being put into ambulances.
Later, after visiting a hospital where a number of those injured had been taken, he said: “Government divers have entered the submerged portion of the boat to rescue survivors, passengers or crew members. We will investigate this incident, we must understand the reason for this incident.”
Rescuers check on a half submerged boat after it collided tonight near Lamma Island, off the southwestern coast of Hong Kong Island. (Image: Kin Cheung/AP/Press Association Images)
A representative from Hong Kong Electric told RTHK news website the power company was ferrying 124 passengers and crew to watch the fireworks in Victoria Harbour when the collision with a regular passenger ferry occurred.
The company’s vessel sank rapidly with its bow protruding from the water, while the other ferry was only slightly damaged, RTHK reported.
Lamma island is the third largest island in Hong Kong, with a population of around 5,000 people. It lies approximately three kilometres (two miles) to the south-west of Hong Kong island and is popular with expats, who enjoy its car-less narrow streets and laid-back lifestyle.
Police said the cause of the accident was not yet known.
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