32 injured in Hong Kong ferry collision

Members of the media surround rescue workers as they carry a victim into an ambulance after at least 20 people were injured in a collision between a ferry and another commercial vessel off Hong Kong on October 1, 2012. Search and rescue operations were under way for around 80 other people who were involved in the accident near Lamma Island, a police spokesman said. AFP PHOTO / RICHARD A. BROOKS

HONG KONG—More than 30 people were injured in a collision between a ferry and a tug boat which threw scores of people into the sea off Hong Kong Monday, police said.

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 around 8:20 pm (1220 GMT) as the city celebrated its mid-autumn festival with a massive fireworks display, a police spokesman said.

“The information we have now is that at least 32 persons were sent to hospital… The rescue is still ongoing,” the spokesman told AFP.

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.

Police said the cause of the accident was not known.