At least three people are dead and two are injured after a boat overturned near New York on Sunday, officials said.
Officials from the New York Fire Department, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Coast Guard responded to the Ambrose Channel after the NYPD got a distress call around noon.
The boat capsized in the Newport Walk area known as Breezy Point, the NYPD said. The Coast Guard, in a statement to NBC New York, described the area as “a neighborhood at the tip of Queens’ Rockaway peninsula.”
Six people were reportedly in the water after the boat capsized, the FDNY said.
Five people were rescued from the boat in the water and taken to local hospitals, where three died, the NYPD said. One person is in critical condition and another is in stable condition.
Two of the victims were airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and three were taken to Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, where emergency medical crews were waiting, the Coast Guard said.
Four of the five people rescued from the sinking boat were unresponsive, the Coast Guard said. Coast Guard crews performed CPR to some of those who were unresponsive.
The Coast Guard said Sunday night it is still searching for one person missing in the water approximately 5 miles southeast of Breezy Point.
There is no additional information on the victims and it was not immediately clear what kind of boat capsized.
It also was not clear exactly what happened, but the NYPD said it doesn’t appear another vessel bumped into the boat. The Coast Guard said it was notified of a “vessel taking on water” and described the boat as “sinking” in a release.
The investigation is ongoing.
