Two people are confirmed dead and two others are missing, presumed drowned, after a collision between a high speed ferry and a water taxi close to the Wadden Sea island of Terschelling on Friday morning.

The accident happened at around 7.15 am when the ferry, taking people to the mainland, collided with the other boat, which was bringing people to the island to work.

Emergency service workers stopped searching for the two missing people – a 12-year-old child and an adult man – at around 11.15, saying there was no hope they would be found alive.

All eight people on the taxi ended up in the water. Six of them were construction workers and one had his son with him, Henk Dedden, of building firm Friso Bouwgroep in Sneek told reporters.

No-one was hurt on board the ferry, the Tiger, which makes the crossing to the mainland in about an hour. The captain of the water taxi is in hospital.

Police are now investigating what caused the crash, which took place in a deepened shipping route between two sandbanks in the shallow Wadden Sea, about 500 metres from the island.

It was still dark at the time but there was no mist, locals said. The route is not lit.