Thames Cruise Boat Sinks; Several Drown

A pleasure boat carrying about 160 people on a late-night cruise collided with a barge and sank early today in the River Thames, and authorities said several people had drowned.

The London Fire Brigade said several bodies were removed from the river, but it declined to specify how many.

About 70 people were hospitalized and up to 40 others were unaccounted for, authorities said.

Police said the vessel, the Marchioness, was struck by a sand dredging barge near Blackfriars Bridge in central London shortly before 2 o’clock local time. It sank within two minutes.

Scores of people were disco dancing below deck when the collision occurred, news reports said.

“There are reports of up to 40 people still in the river,” Scotland Yard said two hours after the accident. “The final outcome will depend on how many people were on board.”

Estimates of the number of people on board varied from less than 100 to as many as 150. The owners of the boat said there were only 120 persons on board. It was not immediately known if any Americans were aboard.

Dozens of passengers swam to safety, and more than 70 people were taken to Westminster and St. Thomas’ hospitals, nearly all suffering minor injuries, authorities said. Some survivors were treated for shock at the Savoy, the exclusive riverside hotel.

Ambulance crews, firefighters and police helped to rescue passengers from the water, including some people who were swept hundreds of yards down river to Waterloo Bridge, Scotland Yard said.

The accident occurred less than a mile from the Houses of Parliament.

Firefighters scanned the river with high-powered searchlights, but only small pieces of wreckage could be seen. Shifting currents made it difficult to determine how many bodies were in the river.

“I saw a young bloke of about 22 crying his eyes out,” taxi driver Osman Tuncbuker said. “He said there were 50 people on the top deck.

“The boat went down within two minutes of being hit,” he added. “He told me he looked round and could only see the people in the water who had been on the deck. Apparently his brother and sister had been below deck and he could not find them. He feared they were missing.”

A survivor outside the Howard Hotel said: “We were having a wonderful time when it turned into a nightmare. I went into the water, I don’t know how, and people were floating about on bits of wood, shouting and screaming.

“I must have passed out because I don’t know how I got out of the water. Firemen were looking after me when I came round. I have lost my friends. I have no idea where they are.”

Police spokesman Mike Cobb said some people may have been trapped inside the Marchioness, which was submerged in the river.

He said the tidal current was moving fast upstream and could have swept victims up river as far as Putney, five miles away.

The last major disaster involving a British ship was the sinking of the car and passenger ferry Herald of Free Enterprise, which capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on March 6, 1987, killing 193 people.