NEW YORK – Two people, including a 7-year-old boy, died Tuesday afternoon when a boat carrying a dozen people capsized on the Hudson River in Midtown Manhattan, police and fire officials confirmed.
According to the New York City Fire Department, both marine and land units responded to the incident just after 2:45 p.m. EDT, WABC-TV reported.
Det. Arthur Tsui, with the New York Police Department, confirmed to The New York Times that a 48-year-old woman and a 7-year-old boy died.
Both victims, WABC reported, became trapped underneath the capsized boat.
It was not immediately clear what caused the 27-foot vessel to capsize, but the other 10 occupants of the boat sustained injuries, the newspaper reported.
According to WABC, two of the other passengers, including the boat’s captain, were listed in critical condition Tuesday night.
Police confirmed to the TV station that the boat had been chartered by family and friends and that the vessel’s owner was trailing the boat on a Jet Ski at the time of the incident.
Inspector Anthony Russo of the Harbor Unit said during a news briefing that a mix of factors, including “a lot of commercial, recreational traffic,” may have contributed to the boat’s capsizing, the Times reported.
“We had the current, the wind, so you could have wakes approaching from different directions, waves from different directions,” he said. “It takes some skill to operate in the Hudson River, so it could’ve been a contributing factor.”
