Cruise ship tipped on its side after New Orleans tanker crash

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Emergency responders rushed to the Port of New Orleans after a tanker collided with a river cruise ship with more than 130 people onboard on Friday afternoon (local time),…

As cruise passengers prepared to make their way off the boat and out into New Orleans, a metallic screech suddenly filled the air.

A tanker collided with the river cruise boat, forcing it to slowly tip over, as some passengers desperately gripped the railing and others ended up in the Mississippi River.

While 32 people were sent to hospital, authorities said everyone was accounted for and investigators were left to figure out how exactly this happened in the busy traffic hub.

Emergency responders rushed to help with the mass evacuation, as the boat - the American Heritage - started taking on water, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said at a news conference.

Those transported to local hospitals all had non-critical injuries and everyone else had been accounted for, she said.

Others were also being treated for "bumps and bruises" in the port facility. Two harbour police officers were also hospitalised, but were in good condition, said Port of New Orleans Harbor Police Chief Melanie Montroll.

New Orleans firefighters immediately responded to the collision and used ladders over the dock to try to rescue people, Moreno said. Other ships on the Mississippi River also responded to help get people out of the water.

The Atlantic Asphalt tanker appeared to have "lost control", said US Coast Guard Captain Melanie Burnham, adding they didn't know the "exact reason why" it may have lost steering capabilities. The person driving the tanker was a river pilot.

After the cruise ship was first hit, passengers "began disembarking", but "while that was happening, the cruise ship began to sink, and then eventually the cruise ship toppled over and flipped", Moreno said. "Now, when that occurred, we started to have people in the water."

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