BEIJING (AP) – State media say four people have died after an excursion boat hit a tow rope on a lake in eastern China.

The Xinhua News Agency says the bodies of the final two victims were dragged from Lake Tai on Thursday afternoon. Both were students at Jiaotong University in the nearby financial hub of Shanghai.

Another student and a tour guide died a day earlier after efforts to revive them failed.

News reports said the accident happened Wednesday when the skipper of the high-speed excursion boat tried to cut between a tug boat and a barge it was towing, apparently without seeing the rope. They said the rope swept across the deck, hitting the four victims. Four others were injured.

The accident occurred at the end of the three-day Qingming festival.

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