A house boat has sunk near Hampton Court Palace, sparking an emergency operation.
Five fire engines - two from Kingston, one from Twickenham and fire rescue units from Heston and Croydon - went sent to the River Thames near Hampton Court station at about 5pm today.
London Ambulance Service sent an ambulance crew, duty officer and emergency planning officer but have since stood down as there is not believed to be any patients.
The boat is believed to have been moored close to the Jolly Boatman site and Cigarette Island Park.
A witness, who was at Hampton Court bridge, said: "There is a boat with some divers in it and there is one guy in the water. There are a lot of fire engines and the police are here too.
"It is totally under the water now.
"It is right by the bank on the Hampton Court station side of the river."
Another witness said: "They don't know if there is anybody on there or not. It will be a while before they pull it up.
"I don't think it is an official mooring. Including the one that sunk, there is three boats there."
#Hampton Court: The boat is being searched by our fire & rescue colleagues to ensure there is no one on board pic.twitter.com/2zEC9spL1v
— ChrisHawkswell, EP07 (@LAS_TacAdvisor) February 20, 2015
Crews from @SurreyFRS & @LondonFire are dealing with an incident involving a boat near #hamptoncourt Traffic backing up,avoid area if poss
— Surrey News (@SurreyNews) February 20, 2015
Fire rescue divers are currently searching the boat (Credit for all pics: Stefan Lange)
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service were also in attendance.
Did you see what happened? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6395 or email laura.proto@london.newsquest.co.uk.
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