By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) -Multiple injuries were reported in Clearwater, Florida, after a ferry crash near the city’s Memorial Causeway Bridge on Sunday evening, local officials said, adding a ferry with over 40 people onboard was struck by a boat that fled the scene.
Police and fire services were at the scene.
Clearwater Police Department said on social media nearby hospitals were notified and “multiple trauma alerts” were issued with helicopters transporting two of the more seriously injured people.
“The crash involved the Clearwater Ferry, which had more than 40 people on board,” police said, adding the U.S. Coast Guard will handle the probe into the incident.
“All of the injuries are from the ferry. The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene.”
An NBC News affiliate cited an alert from the city of Clearwater saying the crash happened late at night just west of the bridge.
“The ferry came to rest on a sandbar just south of the Memorial Causeway bridge. All patients and passengers have been removed,” police added.
It was the end of the 17-day Sugar Sand Festival on Sunday night and many people were taking the ferry back and forth for the festival, media reports said.
An ABC News affiliate cited Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector saying that the boat with collided with the ferry was privately owned.
Officials called it a mass casualty event but that does not necessarily mean that there were deaths because injuries were also taken into account in that assessment.
“We’re working (on) a boat crash off the Memorial Causeway bridge that has resulted in multiple injuries. It’s been declared a mass casualty incident by the fire department due to the number of injuries,” Clearwater Police Department said in a statement on X.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
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