A passenger ferry has capsized near Amsterdam after it was struck by a German freight ship, leaving at least one person missing in the water, Dutch police said.
The ferry is used to shuttle pedestrians and often their bicycles across the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal, a broad, heavily used internal waterway.
The skipper of the ferry is known to be missing.
Divers are in the water looking for victims and a helicopter is using infrared sensors to search the water for warm spots.
The incident took place near the town of Nieuwer Ter Aa, roughly 6 miles south of Amsterdam.
Photos of the boat published by NOS showed it floating upside-down near the side of the canal, a brown-red bottom facing upward and a life preserver drifting in the water nearby.
Video footage of the boat taken last summer and posted on YouTube show it is big enough to fit around a dozen passengers, and not big enough to carry a car.
Traffic on the canal has been halted. The boat's owner, SwetsODV, said on its Twitter feed that the boat, identified as AA, is "out of commission." The company could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman said maritime police have opened an investigation into the cause of the accident, which is not yet known.
