(Reuters) - Several people were injured, at least one of them seriously, when a ferry struck a group of kayakers off a Manhattan pier on Tuesday evening, officials said.
The Coast Guard said in a statement it had received reports of the collision between the New York Waterways ferry and the group of about a dozen kayakers around 6:00 p.m. local time near Pier 79 in the Hudson River.
Five of the paddlers were taken to area hospitals for treatment, including two who were listed in critical condition, the Coast Guard said.
The New York Police Department had a slightly different tally, saying one man, a Manhattan Kayak Company employee, had suffered a serious injury.
"His bone was exposed, he had lost a lot of blood, and he was lapsing in and out of consciousness," NYPD Inspector David Driscoll told reporters about the man's arm injury, according to a recording published online by CBS New York.
The cause of the crash was under investigation, the Coast Guard said.
Further details were not immediately available.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Tait)