Whale Tour Boat Sinks Off British Columbia; 5 dead, 1 missing

A Typical Whale Tour Boat

(CNN)- Five people died after a whale watching tour boat carrying 27 people sank off the coast of Tofino, British Columbia, on Sunday, rescue coordinators said. One person was missing.

Twenty-one people have been rescued, said the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

Search and rescue efforts were wrapped up late Sunday. 

The Sinking Whale Tour Boat

The Incident:

The boat was a whale-watching vessel named the MV Leviathan II, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said.

A witness told CBC the boat sank far enough from shore that it could not be seen.

"You could see the smaller boats going back and forth to try and help bring people back to shore," Rami Touffaha told CBC. "The waters weren't choppy so I don't see what could have caused the boat to sink, but you never know in these waters unfortunately," he said.

Another tour operator, John Forde, was on a boat excursion with tourists, when he heard the news, CBC reported. He set course for the Leviathan II and arrived as the boat was nearly submerged.

"It was quite close to the rocks and you could still see part of the vessel above water," he said.