The Seastreak Wall Street ferry from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., banged into the mooring as it arrived at South Street around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday. One person is in critical condition with head injuries.

Police and fire officials said 30 to 50 people were injured.

Some patients were carried out strapped to flat-board stretchers, their heads and necks immobilized. About a dozen passengers on stretchers were spread out on the dock, surrounded by emergency workers.

A corner of the ferry is ripped open like a tin can.

A passenger, Ellen Foran of Neptune City, N.J., said people tumbled on top of one another, hysterical and crying.

Ferry company officials are at the scene.

Ferries are a fairly common way to commute to work in Manhattan, an island separated from New Jersey and the rest of New York City by several rivers.