Lockport, New York-
Several people have been sent to local hospitals after a boat capsized Monday while they were visiting an underground cave system built to carry water from the Erie Canal below Lockport in western New York, officials said.
Police and firefighters were called to Lockport Cave Tours, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Niagara Falls, around 11:30 a.m. Tours take visitors to an underground boat that is lit only by small lights.
Police said in a press release that work crews are working to help all parties exit the area safely.
“Eight of the passengers reported to our emergency room,” said Patricia Brant, a spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport. “Nothing critical. They are all stable and some of them have already been released. »
Brandt said she did not know the nature of the injuries, but believed some had been treated from being in the water. She said other patients have gone to other hospitals, but she has no details.
Police did not immediately say how many people were on the boat.
Video footage from the scene outside the Lockport Cave office showed a person speaking as they were being loaded into an ambulance. Others wrapped in white towels were escorted to a bus where it rained steadily.
Photos and videos posted on the Lockport Cave website show small, flat-bottomed boats sailing through a dug-out tunnel, which was blasted in the 19th century to divert excess water from the Erie Canal to supply nearby businesses.
The tunnel was previously the subject of an episode of the Syfy network show “Ghost Hunters.”
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