At least one person is missing after a 20-foot boat collided with a docked cargo ship on the Saint Lawrence River.
A crane operator called 911 shortly after 9:45 p.m. when he saw debris in the water.
“There was quite a lot of damage. It was like a little explosion,” said John Primiani with the Montreal fire department.
“The whole front end was blown up and the whole boat completely sank.”
Authorities with the Montreal and Longueuil fire department, the coast guard and military Hercules helicopters from Trenton, Ont. are searching for an unknown number of missing people in the eastern sector of the Montreal Port, leading to Cap Saint-Michel in Varennes.
The larger vessel was anchored at the time.
“In the morning, there’s quite a few boats,” said André Brunet, a Montreal East resident.
“[There are] a lot of bigger boats leaving from the Port, so smaller boats need to be careful.”
Rescuers said they cannot say if the boater or boaters were wearing life jackets.
Officials are trying to figure out how the incident happened.