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Two Dutch tourists dead in south China ship collision

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-06 17:38

GUANGZHOU: Two Dutch tourists were confirmed dead and nine other people were injured, after a passenger ship collided with a coal-carrying vessel in waters off south China's Guangdong Province late Thursday, the local maritime authority said.

The identities of the dead Dutch tourists were not immediately available.

Two of the injured, both women, were also confirmed to be Dutch nationals. They are being treated in the Panyu Central Hospital.

"One of the women injured her spine, and the other received minor facial injuries," said Liang Xinmin, deputy director of the Emergency Treatment Department of the hospital.

The women had requested to return to the Netherlands for further treatment, said Liang.

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A hospital spokesman also said one of the Dutch women said her husband was among the dead.

The hospital has received six of the injured. Besides the Dutch women, the other four were locals from Guangdong.

Two of the other three injured, who were taken to the Hexian Hospital in Panyu, have been discharged. One, who remained in hospital, has been confirmed to be a Hong Kong resident. He suffered severe fractures, said a hospital spokesperson.

A provincial maritime affairs bureau statement said all the casualties occurred on the passenger ship. Nobody on the coal freighter was hurt. The injured had been taken to hospital.

The statement said the passenger ship from Panyu City, Guangdong, took 75 passengers from a port in Hong Kong at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday, and was en route back to Guangdong, when the accident happened at 8 p.m. Thursday.

According to an initial investigation, the bow of the freighter hit the port side of the passenger ship as they were moving towards each other in a sea lane near Lianhuashan Port in Panyu.