Seven dead in Georgia as officials investigate ‘catastrophic failure’ of dock gangway

Deadly accident occurred as crowds gathered for celebration of Gullah-Geechee community in Sapelo Island

At least seven people have been killed after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia's Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island's tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black descendants of enslaved people, authorities said.

Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them with critical injuries, and crews from the US Coast Guard, the McIntosh county fire department, the Georgia department of natural resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia department of natural resources, which operates the dock. Three of them remained hospitalized, said the natural resources department's commissioner, Walter Rabon.