MACAO - Twenty seven people were injured in a ferry collision in Macao Outer Harbor Saturday, according to sources from the local police authority.

The passenger ship carrying 175 passengers and 8 crews, leaving for Hong Kong at 12:15 am, knocked down a buoy about 15 minutes after departure.

A passenger said, he heard a big sound when he was taking rest and he was not hurt with his seat belt on. But many people who didn't fasten their seat-belts get injured during the collision.

The ship sailed back to the ferry after the collision. The police authority confirmed that 27 passengers were injured, 25 of them had been sent to hospital immediately, and most of them were slight contuse and scratching.

Related government departments have launched the emergency mechanism after the collision.

Rescuers remove an injured person after a ferry collision accident happened in the Outer Harbor of Macao, south China, Dec. 29, 2012. A passenger ship carrying 175 passengers and 8 crew members, leaving for Hong Kong on Saturday noon, knocked down a buoy about 15 minutes after departure. [Photo/Xinhua]