NEW YORK, Jan 9, 2013 (AFP) - A commuter ferry hit a pier in New York City on Wednesday, leaving "multiple" people injured, coast guard spokesman Charles Rowe said.

Rowe told the NY1 television network that the accident took place shortly before 9:00 am (1400 GMT) on Pier 11 in lower Manhattan, not far from Wall Street. "We don't know what the cause was," the spokesman said.

Police and firefighters were on the scene and evacuating the injured from the vessel on stretchers, television images showed.