'Mass casualty incident' after Missouri tourist boat capsizes

July 19 (Reuters) - An amphibious vehicle capsized on a lake in Missouri with more than 20 people on board, leading to a "mass casualty incident," the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District said on Thursday.

Several people were taken to hospital following the incident on the "Ride the Ducks" amphibious vehicle on Table Rock Lake, Stone County, near Branson, Missouri, the fire district said in posts on Twitter.

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said there were fatalities when the boat carrying 31 people, some of them children, capsized and sank, television station KY3 News reported.

Rader said he did not know how many people were killed and divers were on the scene searching for passengers, KY3 News reported.

The Stone County Sheriff's Office could not immediately confirm the report.

Ride The Ducks, a company in Branson, Missouri, that operates amphibious duck vehicles in the area, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Duck amphibious vehicles have been involved in a number fatal accidents around the world in the past two decades, with some sinking or being swamped or others colliding with vehicles.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico Editing by Sandra Maler and Paul Tait)