Two dead in Dutch canal boating tragedy

August 13, 2013 | 10:06

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Two people died after a German gas tanker ploughed into a pleasure boat on a Dutch canal on Monday, dragging it under water, emergency services said.

Rescue workers look for missing people on a Dutch canal near Wemeldinge on Monday, where a German gas tanker had ploughed into a sailboat, dragging it under water. (AFP/ANP/Robert Van Den Berge)

THE HAGUE: Two people died after a German gas tanker ploughed into a pleasure boat on a Dutch canal on Monday, dragging it under water, emergency services said.

Several dive teams, helicopters, ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene of the accident near Wemeldinge, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Belgian border.

Four people were initially reported missing, but rescue divers called off the search after bringing a woman to the surface, who later died in hospital, and then the body of a man.

"The dead people are a man, 61, and a woman, 63," from the nearby town of Hulst, emergency services in the Zeeland region said in a tweet.

The pleasure boat sank after being hit by a tanker, which Dutch media reported was a German gas tanker headed for Antwerp in Belgium.

Traffic along the canal was halted pending the rescue operation, as emergency services brought the stricken boat to the surface.

AFP

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