PARIS (AFP) — Two people, who were seriously injured when a pleasure boat carrying 12 people sank in the River Seine in Paris, died Sunday, police said.
The pair, a man in his forties and a six-year-old boy, died within hours of being trapped Saturday night in the sunken boat near the French capital's Notre Dame cathedral for some 20 minutes before frogmen found them.
Their identity was not given.
Ten of the 12 -- six adults and six children, all of them French -- had been plucked from the water immediately.
Police said the boat was raised from the riverbed Sunday morning but did not give details.
Junior transport minister Dominique Bussereau said late Saturday that the exact cause of the accident was unclear.
An investigation would have to determine whether the boat hit the Archeveque bridge just behind Notre Dame, or collided with a Bateau Mouche, gaudily-lit vessels which carry thousands of tourists up and down the Seine every day.
One of the Bateaux Mouche was later moored near the scene of the accident.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
