Ferry passengers complained of being left in the dark after a collision between two Discovery Bay ferries in heavy fog yesterday. Announcements were only made in Cantonese after the collision which one passenger said left a hole six metres long by 2.5 metres wide in the port side of one ferry. No one was injured. Regular commuters who do not speak Cantonese voiced fears for their safety in emergency situations on the ferries. The Marine Department said a Discovery Bay ferry travelling to Central with 286 passengers on board 'made minor contact' at 7.15am with a ferry from the same company - Discovery Bay Transportation Services - carrying 32 passengers from Central to Discovery Bay. A spokesman said the incident occurred north of Kau Yi Chau near Green Island and was reported to the department at about 8am by a member of the public. However, one passenger said the impact was far from minor. 'It was full-on. The hole in the Central-bound ferry ran about a third of the length of the ferry. We couldn't see it, but if we had we would definitely have been panicking,' he said. The passenger said he returned to take a photograph of the damage after the ferry docked in Central. 'They were covering it up with a tarpaulin,' he said. Regular commuter and Hong Kong broker Andrew Clarke said: 'For the first 10 to 15 minutes after the collision there was a bit of panic among the boys on the ship [the crew] and no one said anything. Then there was one announcement in Cantonese, but I don't think it was anything major.' Mr Clarke said a second announcement followed, also in Cantonese. A colleague and fellow commuter was equally concerned that the crew failed to inform passengers in English. 'More than 50, maybe 60 per cent of those on board were non-Chinese speaking. It seems odd that no information was given in English,' he said. A third passenger wrote to the South China Morning Post yesterday: 'It is surely a dangerous situation to have no English-speaking crew on these boats. Had the emergency been serious, say the vessel was sinking, or on fire, a disaster is in the making,' David Hulme wrote. Mr Clarke said: 'The crew spent a good 10 to 15 minutes just running up and down. They hung over the side to see what damage had been done and then lifted a panel to see if the ferry was taking on water. I think the other ferry just carried on its way, even though there were broken-off bits from one of the ferries floating in the water.' HKR International said radars had detected obstacles in the area. 'Due to the extremely low visibility our ship masters lowered the speed to a safe level to avoid possible danger and managed to minimise the damage,' the company said. The Marine Department was last night investigating the accident. A spokesman said: 'At this stage we have no conclusions.' A 52-year-old woman who later complained of neck injuries went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital to seek medical treatment. She was treated and discharged. The woman was among the 286 passengers on the Central-bound Discovery Bay ferry at the time of the collision. She did not complain of feeling unwell until afterwards. SHIP10GET