Hong Kong and mainland authorities are searching for a coxswain who was thrown into the sea from a speedboat in a collision with a Macau-bound jetfoil off Lantau yesterday.
The man's mainland-registered speedboat collided with the TurboJet jetfoil in mainland waters about 1.85 kilometres west of Fan Lau on Lantau at around 1.30pm.
The man, suspected to be a mainlander, fell overboard and his seven-metre speedboat was badly damaged, police said.
'Part of the speedboat was peeled off,' a police officer said. 'It drifted for about 1.5 nautical miles into Hong Kong waters before it sank.'
He said the speedboat could have been headed to a nearby mainland island known as Guishan Dao to pick up illicit products.
Shun Tak Holdings, which manages the TurboJet vessel, said the speedboat rammed into the left side of the 30-metre-long jetfoil, Lilau, which was carrying 142 passengers and nine crew.
'None of the passengers and crew was injured and the jetfoil suffered no damage,' its spokeswoman said.