At least seven people were killed Saturday when a narrow wooden pier collapsed on a waterfront where a crowd of people had gathered as part of a celebration on Chapello Island in the southeast state of Georgia, authorities said.

“At least twenty people fell into the water” when the pedestrian pier collapsed and “as of now, the death toll is seven and the number of injured is not yet known,” state authorities said in a statement.

The crowd had gathered at a quay where ferries moored that connect the island – very close to the coast in the Atlantic Ocean – to the mainland, for an event by the small community of Gullah Geechee, descendants of Africans many of whom had been transported as slaves in coastal plantations in the southeastern US.

“What should have been a joyous celebration of the culture and history of the Gala Gichi turned into a tragedy,” US President Joe Biden said in a press release released by his White House staff.

Expressing his “gratitude” to the rescue crews, he assured that his team will remain in contact with the local authorities and is ready to provide them with “any help they need”.

The governor of the state, Brian Kemp, in turn expressed his condolences to the families of the victims through X, stressing that rescue teams remain on the scene.

The investigation remains ongoing, local authorities said.

Isolated on scattered islands and strips of wetland land along the Atlantic coast, the ancestors of the Gala Gitsi exploited the resources offered by land and sea. They created their own culture, based on their roots, and even their own creole language.