At least seven people died and several others were hospitalized when a ferry dock walkway buckled in the US state of Georgia on Saturday, local authorities have said.
Eight people were hospitalized, at least six of them with critical injuries, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a statement, as quoted by the Associated Press.
A gangway, linking an outer dock where people board the ferry with another dock onshore, collapsed, sending about 20 people plunging into the Atlantic waters, according to Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The department operates the dock and ferries that carry passengers between the island and the mainland.
Jones said crews from the US Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, and others were searching the water for survivors. He added that a group of engineers and other experts would arrive on Sunday to investigate the cause of the disaster.
“There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, the spokesman said, as cited by the agency. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”
The accident occurred on Sapelo Island, which is about 60 miles (97 kms) south of the mainland and only accessible by state-run ferry or private boats. At the time of the tragedy, residents and tourists had gathered for an annual celebration held by the island’s community of black slave descendants.
Cultural Day is marked by the inhabitants of the Hog Hammock Community, formed by the African American ethnic group known as Gullah-Geechee, which has retained much of its African heritage including a unique dialect, thanks to the isolation of the island.
Hog Hammock Community on Sapelo Island is believed to be one of the last intact island-based Gullah-Geechee communities in America. In 1996, the entire area of the community was included in the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the country’s treasured historic sites.