3 missing in Dutch canal sailboat tragedy

Three people were missing after a German gas tanker ploughed into a sailboat on a Dutch canal on Monday, dragging it under water, with one possible survivor taken to hospital. Several dive teams, helicopters, ambulances and fire engines were scrambled to the scene of the accident near Wemeldinge, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Belgian border. "The first casualty has been taken quickly to hospital," emergency services in the Zeeland region said in a tweet after rescue divers extracted someone from the wreck more than an hour after the accident. "Dive teams are in and around the boat looking for those missing. There may be four people in the water," they said in an earlier tweet. The sailboat sank after being hit by a tanker, which Dutch media reported was a German gas tanker headed for Antwerp in Belgium. Traffic along the canal was halted pending the rescue operation, with emergency services set to try to bring the stricken sailboat to the surface.