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| Nine US 'duck boat' victims from the same family - governor | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Nine of the 17 people who died when a tour boat sank in a Missouri lake were from the same family, according to the governor of Missouri. | Nine of the 17 people who died when a tour boat sank in a Missouri lake were from the same family, according to the governor of Missouri. |
| Governor Michael Parson said that he spoke to a woman who "lost nine of the 11 members of her family". | Governor Michael Parson said that he spoke to a woman who "lost nine of the 11 members of her family". |
| "It's difficult to find the right words to say," he said, describing the conversation to CNN. | "It's difficult to find the right words to say," he said, describing the conversation to CNN. |
| The "duck boat" was carrying 31 people when it overturned on Table Rock Lake, a popular tourist attraction. | The "duck boat" was carrying 31 people when it overturned on Table Rock Lake, a popular tourist attraction. |
| Missouri Highway Patrol said the ages of the deceased range from one to 70. | Missouri Highway Patrol said the ages of the deceased range from one to 70. |
| A spokesman for the governor told the BBC that they would not immediately provide further details about victims, and it is not yet known whether it was a multi-generational family or if it was a couple with nine children, | |
| Governor Parson described the survivors as a family aunt and her 13-year-old nephew, according to CNN. | |
| How did the accident unfold? | |
| The vessel began taking on water shortly before 19:00 (00:00 GMT) on Thursday. | |
| Video footage shot by a witness on shore showed two duck boats struggling through choppy waters and spray. | |
| One of the boats made it to shore but the other was driven back by the wind and eventually overwhelmed. | |
| During a press conference on Friday, Sheriff Doug Rader could not say whether passengers were wearing life vests at the time of the capsizing, or if the boat's windows were open. | |
| Missouri law requires all children under the age of seven to wear life jackets on boats, unless they are in the "cabin area". | |
| The vessel sank in 40ft (12m) of water before rolling to a final depth of 80ft. | |
| Sheriff Rader said divers have located the sunken boat and will probably recover it later today. | |
| 'Shouldn't have been in the water' | |
| Jim Pattison Jr, the tour boat company owner, said the storm appeared to have taken people in the area by surprise. | |
| The boat, he told US media, "shouldn't have been in the water" due to the weather. | |
| Mr Pattinson said that he has been told by his employees that the accident was likely caused by "a fast-moving storm that came out of basically nowhere". | |
| "Usually the lake is very placid and it's not a long tour, they go in and kind of around an island and back. We had other boats in the water earlier and it had been a great, sort of calm experience," he said. | |
| The company had been operating for 47 years without incident, Mr Pattinson told CBS, adding that the captain had over 16 years of experience on the water. | |
| He also said that the boat had life jackets onboard, but added that under Missouri law, passengers are not required to wear them. | |
| The deadly accident happened as a line of powerful thunderstorms rolled through the American Midwest, uprooting trees and felling power lines. | |
| At the time of the accident, winds reached around 65mph (104 km/h), according to the National Weather Service. |