Tugboat sinks in the Mississippi River after collision with tanker ship in Louisiana

LULING, La.– The crew of a tugboat was quickly rescued when their ship sank in the Mississippi River after colliding with a tanker ship in Louisiana.

St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said his office received a report Sunday evening of the collision between the ship and the tugboat near the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge in Luling, Louisiana.

“Preliminary reports indicate that all crew members of the tugboat have been rescued,” Champagne said in a Facebook post on Sunday around 10 p.m.

The sheriff’s office said the tanker was traveling upstream when it struck the tugboat, causing the smaller vessel to sink. WWL-TV reports this.

Emergency medical personnel assessed the crew and transported them to a hospital for treatment if necessary, the sheriff’s office said.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s 8th District Office in New Orleans, known as Coast Guard Heartland, said it had dispatched personnel to the scene, but that the people who went into the river during the crash had already been rescued when Guard crews arrived, reported WWL.

The Coast Guard told WWL that there will be an assessment of the potential environmental impacts of the accident site in Luling, about 23 miles west of New Orleans.