CHANGSHA -- Authorities in Hunan province, Central China, are pressing ahead with search and rescue operations after a boat collision left two people dead and 14 others missing, officials said Wednesday at a press conference.

The incident occurred Tuesday morning on the Yuanshui River in Qinglang township, Huaihua city, when a passenger boat collided with an oil waste recovery vessel, throwing 19 people onboard the passenger boat into the water. Three survivors were pulled from the river and have since been hospitalized. All of them are in stable conditions.

Ten professional rescue teams, comprising 212 personnel, are working around the clock to locate the missing. Additional specialized rescue teams are expected to join the underwater search efforts.

However, search efforts have been hampered by complex water conditions, difficult access to the accident site, and the lack of specialized water rescue teams, according to Xiang Minghua, deputy head of the city's emergency management bureau.

The Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) and the Ministry of Transport have dispatched a working team to Hunan to guide rescue efforts. MEM has also dispatched a national water emergency rescue team with sonar and diving equipment to the scene to aid rescue work, urging efforts to determine the cause of the incident as soon as possible and prevent similar events from taking place again.

The oil waste recovery vessel involved in the collision has docked after the incident. Three people onboard the vessel have been detained by police as part of an ongoing investigation.