Pleasure Boat Catches Fire And Crashes Into Canary Wharf Pier

A pleasure boat with 151 people on board caught fire on the Thames in London and ploughed into a pier.

The boat, carrying 142 passengers and nine crew, crashed at Canary Wharf Pier at about 3.40pm on Sunday.

Witnesses captured the boat - with smoke coming out of its rear - heading into the pier on video.

All passengers were evacuated from the 300-tonne boat along with six crew, while three crew members remained on board.

MORE: 10 Things You Should Never Order In Restaurants, By Experts
MORE: U.S. Navy Unveils £3 Billion ‘Stealth’ Warship Of The Future

They were evacuated on to two other boats by the river. No one was injured in the incident.

The boat’s passengers were rescued (Picture: @HpcJohn/PA Wire)

The blaze on the boat was extinguished before firefighters arrived at the scene.

The fire broke out in the engine room of the Erasmus triple-decker vessel.

Witness Dan Hine captured the crash on camera.

The 38-year-old video producer from Limehouse, east London, told the Evening Standard: “We saw the smoke coming from the back of the boat and thought it may be pretty serious.

Passengers scramble after the impact. (Picture: Dan Hine)

“It looked like it was going to park up next to the pier but you could see the boat overshot it and it became perpendicular with the wall.

“Then the ferry hit the wall with quite an impact and after that people started scrambling around and the sirens went off.

“You could hear babies were crying and there was an obvious look of disbelief on people’s faces when it dawned on them what had happened.”

The Port of London Authority said both of the boat’s engines had failed in the fire, forcing the ship’s master to drop anchor.

(Main Picture: @samnsteel/PA)