PHILADELPHIA, July 7 (UPI) -- A barge rammed an amphibious duck boat full of tourists on the Delaware River off Philadelphia's waterfront, police said, pitching 37 people overboard.
Thirty-five of the passengers were recovered, but a search for two unaccounted-for passengers was ongoing, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Police divers were searching for two tourists from Hungary -- a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man -- feared to have been trapped in the duck boat before it sank in 40 feet of water, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported late Wednesday.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said search divers were hampered by murky water.
"They don't know if the bodies are inside the boat because so dark," he said. "You can't see 3 inches in front of you."
Ramsey said crews would raise the wreckage and search it but he was not sure how long that would take, the Inquirer reported.
Tourists board the duck boats at Independence Mall and enter the river for a short tour at a ramp south of the Ben Franklin Bridge, the newspaper said.
Phoenix tourist Eric Scharpf told CBS3 the duck boat apparently had stalled when the barge, pushed by a tug boat on its port side, rammed the boat and "tore it apart," the Inquirer reported.
The newspaper said another unnamed witness told CBS3 the barge "just pushed it (the duck boat) under the water." The witness said tourists were pushed out on either side of the barge.
Police Department spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
