Update 2: Skipper missing after Dutch ferry capsizes

A small Dutch passenger ferry capsized today after being struck by a German freight ship in a canal near Amsterdam.

The ferry skipper was knocked into the water and is missing feared dead, Dutch police said.

"There's one person missing, possibly more," spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek said on Dutch television. "At this moment we don't know how many people were on board the ferry."

He said neither the skipper nor any other victim has been found, several hours after the collision occurred at 7am local time. Divers were searching the water for the skipper's body. No other people have been reported missing.

The ferry is used to shuttle pedestrians and often their bicycles across the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal, a broad, heavily used internal waterway.

The incident took place near the town of Nieuwer Ter Aa, roughly six miles (10km) south of Amsterdam.

The boat is floating upside-down near the side of the canal, with its brown-red bottom facing upward and a life preserver drifting in the water nearby.

Traffic on the canal has been halted.

Zuiderhoek said maritime police have opened an investigation into the cause of the accident. They were interviewing the captain of the freighter, the Duisburg Ruhrort.