Drama on US island: Gangway drags festival visitors to their deaths

The party is in full swing when the ground falls away from under their feet: into the USA Seven people died on Saturday when a gangway at a ferry pier collapsed.

The accident happened on Sapelo Island in the US state of Georgia, which can only be reached from the mainland by boat and is about 100 kilometers south of Savannah.

People there were celebrating a festival honoring the Gullah people, an African-American community native to the southeastern coast of the United States.

Revelers fall into the water from the ferry dock

A boat drove onto the gangway of a dock around 4:30 p.m. local time and the small bridge suddenly collapsed. People were thrown into the water, a McIntosh County spokesman told WTOC.

Several survivors were taken to hospitals. “CNN” initially spoke of six seriously injured people.

A photo available to the Daily Mail shows the destroyed jetty. “There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

▶︎ “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”

Engineers will investigate the accident starting Sunday.

Authorities believe there were at least 20 people on the gangway at the time of the collapse. This connected an external jetty, where passengers board the ferry, with another jetty on land.

Crews from the US Coast Guard, fire departments and other rescue units initially searched the water for additional survivors.

US President mourns the victims

According to US media, Joe Biden (81) said: “It is with broken hearts that we learn of the collapse of the ferry pier on Sapelo Island in Georgia. What should have been a joyful celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead became one of tragedy and devastation.”