Opinion | Grief over ferry tragedy unites Hongkongers online

Tributes and eye-witness accounts of the Lamma Island ferry disaster are pouring in from Hongkongers via Twitter and other social media as they come to terms with the tragedy that has left at least 37 people dead.

At the Lamma.com.hk forum for residents of Lamma island, one user shares what looks to be an eyewitness account of the crash, with harsh words for the crew of the ferry that rammed the party boat:

I was on the Lamma ferry that departed Central at 8 pm. The ferry crashed shortly before arriving at Lamma pier. Strangely, none of the news reports I've seen so far (as of 10:51 pm), whether in Chinese or English, mentioned that the Lamma ferry crashed. The ferry crashed directly into something (apparently the gai do) and threw people forward in the cabin. About five minutes after the crash, the ferry began to take on water near the front of the cabin on the first floor. People began to be very frightened at that point.

We put on life vests and went toward the back of the ferry. During this whole time, we received no information or instructions from any of the HKKF crew. I think this probably made people even more frightened. Luckily for us on the ferry, the crash seemed to have occurred close to the pier, and the ferry made it to the pier, where all of the passengers disembarked, apparently with only minor injuries. When we got off, there was no rescue personnel waiting, even though at this point, it had been about fifteen minutes since the crash, and the HKKF crew seemed to be more worried about people walking off with life vests than whether or not the passengers were o.k. My wife tried to speak with the police, who eventually showed up, but they seemed equally uninterested in what had happened on the ferry.

From YouTube user DynamoMor is this cellphone video footage taken last night of the Hong Kong Electric ferry as it sank: