Ferry suffered engine failure and crashed into a pier at Djurgården

The rescue services were alerted to the accident at 4:20 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

"It was a ferry that suffered an engine failure when it was docking and bounced into the pier," says Lena Hoffman, command operator at Greater Stockholm Fire and Rescue.

At the time, there were 160 passengers on board. A major rescue operation was launched at Allmänna gränd on Djurgården with sea rescue boats, helicopters, police cars, and ambulances.

14-year-old Dino Muka was on board the ferry, on his way home after a day at Gröna Lund, when the accident happened.

"When it was about to stop at Skeppsholmen, there was a loud beep and then we bounced away from the pier and drifted off," he recounts.

He and many of the passengers around him lost their balance and fell forward. Over the loudspeakers, they were told that the ferry had suffered an engine failure.

For a long time, they drifted around in the water between Skeppsholmen and Djurgården, he says. On the front deck where he was, the atmosphere was calm. Eventually, another SL boat and sea rescue arrived to help the ferry get to the pier on Djurgården.

It was only when medical personnel came on board that he became aware that people had been injured on the boat. He thinks that SL could have been clearer with their information while they were drifting on the water after the accident.

"They should have also provided information in English because there were some tourists who didn't understand what they were saying on the loudspeakers," he feels.

SVT reporter Kristoffer Törnmalm, who was at nearby Gröna Lund, witnessed the rescue operation.

"I have seen two people being carried off the boat on stretchers. One person received help with oxygen," he says.

According to the medical incident commander on site, five people, including two children, were initially assessed as needing medical care. Two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The police have classified the incident as recklessness in maritime traffic and causing bodily harm, and will investigate how the accident occurred.

The Allmänna gränd stop on Djurgården was closed to maritime traffic after the accident, but the quay has now reopened.