Three killed in Sydney Harbour boat crash
Updated on 29 March 2007
Three people died and a fourth is missing after a ferry collided with a private boat in Australia's Sydney Harbour.
International figure skating judges Alan Blinn and Simone Moore were among the victims while a search for 14-year-old Queensland state skater Morgan Innes is under way.
Witnesses said the ferry ploughed over the smaller boat, throwing its passengers into the water. Twelve members of Australia's ice skating community were on the harbour cruise when the collision occurred.
Superintendant Terry Dalton of New South Wales police confirmed that three people were killed and eight persons had been taken to various hospitals.
Eyewitness Clive Marshall described the crash victims "calling out for help, calling out for their friends that were presumably on the boat with them".
He said: "A deck hand from our ferry dived in to assist them in the water and also one of the passengers from our ferry dived in to the water as well."
Another witness to the accident said the boat "basically just disintegrated."
New South Wales premier Morris Iemma promised a "thorough, robust and transparent investigation" into the causes of the accident.
Dozens of ferries and hundreds of other boats cross Sydney harbour every day, including navy vessels, cruise liners and container ships, and collisions occur periodically, occasionally causing deaths.
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