Two people were killed and at least nine were critically injured when a tour bus and a duck boat tourist vehicle collided Thursday morning in Seattle, the city’s fire department tweeted.
Twelve others were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries and others were treated on the scene for minor wounds, said Lt. Sue Stangl with the Seattle Fire Department.
About 50 people in all had been evaluated for injuries at the crash site on State Route 99.
It was not immediately clear how many of those people were hospitalized and how many were treated on scene.
Harborview Medical Center took six of the critically injured patients and was expecting five more, spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. Ten patients were transferred to other hospitals.
Ride the Ducks of Seattle Chief Executive Officer Brian Tracey said: “We are just finding out what is going on and probably won’t know more until later. This is tragic. We just hope everyone is OK.”
Seattle police tweeted that Aurora Bridge between downtown Seattle and the Fremont neighborhood was closed in both directions, to both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Photos from the scene showed the wrecked vehicles being surrounded by scores of firefighters — with about 90 first responders rushing to the scene, Stangl said.
It is unclear why the duck boat — a street vehicle that can double as a boat — hit the bus, Stangl told reporters.