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LOCKPORT, June 13 (AP) — One person was killed and several were taken to local hospitals when officials capsized while visiting the underground cavern system of the Erie Canal beneath the western New York city of Lockport. explain.
Police and firefighters were called to Lockport Cave Tours about 32 kilometers northeast of Niagara Falls at around 11:30 a.m. These tours take tourists aboard subterranean boats illuminated only by small lights.
Read also | US boat capsizes: Tourist boat with 36 people on board capsizes at Lockport Cave in New York.
“The boat made a 180-degree turn so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water,” Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano said at a news conference. “Some of the victims were initially on top of that boat when rescuers arrived.”
All 29 people in the punt were thrown into 5 to 6 feet of water when the boat visibly lost its balance and capsized at the end of the roughly 300-foot-long tunnel, he said.
Some passengers were able to reach safely on their own. Rescuers used inflatable boats to free about 16 people, he said.
Authorities did not immediately release the name of the deceased. His wife was taken to the hospital, officials said.
“We had eight passengers come into our emergency room,” said Patricia Brant, a spokeswoman for East Niagara Hospital in Lockport. “No key. They are all stable and some are already released.”
Brandt said she did not know the nature of the injuries, but believed some people were treated for cooling in the water. Other patients went to other hospitals, she said, without details.
Jeremy Swiatowy, 42, watched as rescuers used a sledgehammer to break through the wall leading to the cave, before dangling from the hole to help rescue those remaining inside. Swiatowy said local schoolchildren frequented Lockport, and locals feared the children might be on boats that were sending people into the icy waters.
“The water in the cave is very cold,” he said.
Video footage from the scene outside the Lockport Cave office showed a person talking as he was loaded into an ambulance. Others, wrapped in white towels, were escorted to a bus as the rain continued.
Photos and video posted on the Lockport Cave website show small flat-bottomed boats gliding through a rough tunnel that was blown up in the 1800s to bring extra water from the Erie Canal to power nearby businesses.
The tunnel was once the subject of an episode of the Syfy Network show “Ghost Hunters.” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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