Soldiers and rescue workers flat at the site where a ferry sank in a reservoir in Guatape, Colombia, Sunday, June 25, 2017. Nine people were dead and 28 missing after a tourist ferry packed with around... (Associated Press) 
 
 GUATAPE, Colombia (AP) — A tourist boat packed with about 170 passengers for the holiday weekend capsized Sunday on a reservoir near the Colombian city of Medellin, leaving nine people dead and 28 missing, officials said. 
 
 Rescuers including firefighters from nearby cities and air force pilots were searching for survivors at the Guatape reservoir where the four-story El Almirante ferry sank. A flotilla of recreational boats and jet skis rushed to the scene, pulling people from the boat as it went down and avoiding an even deadlier tragedy. 
 
 Dramatic videos circulating on social media show the turquoise and yellow trimmed party boat rocking back and forth as people crawled down from a fourth-floor roof as it began sinking into the water. 
 
 "Those on the first and second floors sank immediately," a female survivor who wasn't identified by name told Teleantioquia. "The boat was sinking and all we could do was scream and call for help." 
 
 Margarita Moncada, the head of the disaster response agency in Antioquia state, said that according to a preliminary report 99 people were rescued and another 40 managed to find a way to shore on their own and were in good condition. Speaking to reporters from the reservoir, she said nine people had been killed and around 28 are still missing. 
 
 It's unclear what caused the boat to sink but survivors said that it appeared to be overloaded and nobody on board was wearing a life vest. 
 
 Daniel Giraldo, owner of an Italian restaurant in Guatape, said he went to the bay after hearing the sound of ambulances. When he got to the shore people told him the ship had gone under. 
 
 "It sank in a matter of four minutes," he said. 
 
 Next he went to the hospital where he said he saw a baby girl in a wet dress who had been saved but whose mother he was told is missing. 
 
 Authorities were at a loss to say exactly how many people were on the boat and asked passengers or their loved ones to report to a rescue center hastily set up along the shore. They also made a call for scuba divers to assist with the search. 
 
 The reservoir surrounding the soaring rocky outcrop of El Penol is a popular weekend destination a little more than an hour from Medellin. It was especially busy Sunday as Colombians celebrated a long holiday weekend. 
 
 -- 
 
 AP Writers Christine Armario from Bogota, Colombia and Joshua Goodman from Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report ||||| (Reuters) - Nine members of the same family were among 17 people killed when a “duck boat” sank during a storm on Thursday on a Missouri lake in one of the deadliest U.S. tourist tragedies in years. 
 
 The World War Two-style amphibious vehicle was carrying 31 passengers including children when the sudden “microburst” storm hit Table Rock Lake outside Branson, with waves slowly swamping the vehicle before it sank. 
 
 More than three dozen people have died in incidents involving duck boats on land and water in the United States over the past two decades. 
 
 Tia Coleman said she and her nephew were the only survivors from 11 members of their family who went on the “Ride The Ducks” tour. 
 
 "I lost all my children, I lost my husband," Coleman told Indianapolis television channel Fox 59 from her hospital bed in Branson. "I'm OK, but this is really hard, just really hard." bit.ly/2LB7QwJ 
 
 She said the captain of the boat told them when they were in the lake not to put their life jackets on, an action she believed cost lives. The crew was warned to get in and out of the lake quickly as a storm was approaching, she said. 
 
 The 17 victims were aged between 1 and 70 and came from six U.S. states, authorities said. The included Arkansas residents Steve Smith and his son Lance, their church newspaper said. Smith’s daughter Loren survived. His wife opted not go on the tour, the paper said. 
 
 Missouri Governor Mike Parson said seven of the 14 survivors were injured, one seriously. 
 
 “Emergency responders and civilian rescuers helped avert an even worse tragedy as people rushed to help in extremely dangerous conditions,” Parson said in a statement. 
 
 The tragedy unfolded at around 7 p.m. (0000 GMT) on Thursday when thunderstorms rolled over the lake, churning the water into white-capped waves. Two duck vehicles were on the lake and headed back to shore but only one made it. The driver of the duck that sank was among those killed, officials said. 
 
 Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader told reporters that the boat’s captain survived. 
 
 “From what I understand there was life jackets in the duck,” Rader said, but he declined to say if passengers were wearing them. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board and U.S. Coast Guard were investigating, officials said. 
 
 Jim Pattison, president of Ripley Entertainment, which owns the Branson “Ride The Ducks” tour company, said the strength of the storm was unexpected, but the duck boat should not have been in the lake. 
 
 “It shouldn’t have been in the water if what happened, happened,” Pattison told the CBS This Morning show. 
 
 ‘NEVER SEEN IT LIKE THIS’ 
 
 Pat Cox, owner of a marina about a half mile from where the vessel went down, sent five boats and some 20 people to the rescue, most between the ages of 18 and 20. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: A duck boat is seen at Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, U.S., July 19, 2018 in this picture grab obtained from social media video. Ron Folsom/via REUTERS 
 
 “These people showed an amazing strength maybe that we don’t always give them credit for,” Cox said by telephone. “They had it and they took action. And they were good Samaritans.” 
 
 The first boat’s crew was able to pull two people from the waves, Cox said. “It was all hands on deck. We did everything we could.” 
 
 Branson is a family-friendly tourist destination with attractions like “Dolly Parton’s Stampede” dinner theater, the Amazing Acrobats of Shanghai and a Titanic museum with a model of the sunken vessel’s front half. 
 
 Rick Kettles, owner of the Lakeside Resort General Store and Restaurant, said he had never before seen such conditions on the lake, which is a 67-square-mile (174 sq km) reservoir on the White River. 
 
 “I am 54 and I started coming here when I was 6 or 7 years old. I have been on my lake most of my life and I have never seen it like this,” Kettles said. “I am trying to figure out why the boats were out there. I don’t get it, having a captain’s license myself.” 
 
 A microburst is a severe, localized wind gust, blasting down from a thunderstorm, typically covering an area less than 2.5 miles (4 km) in diameter and lasting less than five minutes. 
 
 Duck vehicles, modeled on landing craft that were used in the D-Day invasion of World War Two, are used on sightseeing tours around the world. 
 
 The company that builds ducks, Ride the Ducks International LLC, agreed in 2016 to pay a $1 million fine after one of the vehicles collided with a bus in Seattle, killing five international students. 
 
 Thirteen people died in 1999 when the duck boat in which they were riding sank near Hot Springs, Arkansas. Afterward, the National Transportation Safety Board warned that the boats’ canopy roofs presented a hazard, making it difficult for people, even those wearing life jackets, to escape if one of the vessels capsized. 
 
 Slideshow (2 Images) 
 
 Two tourists died in Philadelphia in 2010 when the duck boat they were in was struck by a tugboat on the Delaware River.
– A tourist boat packed with about 160 passengers capsized Sunday on a reservoir near the Colombian city of Medellin, leaving at least six people dead and 31 missing, officials said. Rescuers including firefighters and air force pilots in helicopters searched for survivors at the Guatape reservoir where El Almirante ferry sank. A flotilla of recreational boats and jet skis rushed to the scene, pulling people from the boat as it went down and avoiding an even deadlier tragedy, the AP reports. Dramatic videos circulating on social media show the party boat rocking back and forth as people crawled down from a fourth-floor roof as it began sinking into the water. "Those on the first and second floors sank immediately," a female survivor told Teleantioquia. "The boat was sinking and all we could do was scream and call for help." Survivors described hearing a loud explosion near the men's bathroom that knocked out power a few minutes after the boat began its cruise around the lake. It's unclear what caused the boat to sink, but survivors said that it appeared to be overloaded and nobody on board was wearing a life vest. After arriving at the scene, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said 122 people were either rescued or found their way to shore, but six had died and another 31 were missing, he told reporters.