NANJING - Three skippers were detained Friday after a yachting accident on Taihu Lake in east China's Jiangsu Province, killing four people and injuring four others Wednesday, local officials said Saturday.

Three students from Shanghai Jiaotong University and one student of East China University of Political Science and Law who was also the tour guide on the trip were killed when their yacht hit the cable of a cargo ship in the city of Suzhou, the municipal maritime officials said.

Feng Ke'er was believed to drive the yacht in between the cargo ship and a tug boat, and the yacht hit the drawing cable between them, according to the publicity department of the Suzhou municipal committee of the Communist Party of China.

Feng and the skippers of the cargo ship and the tug boat have been taken into police custody, according to the publicity department.

A student and the guide died after treatment failed and the bodies of the two other students who were knocked overboard were retrieved on Thursday.

Feng was caught on video denying that there was anyone overboard when some surviving students onboard noticed someone missing from the yacht right after the accident.

The passengers were reportedly not wearing life vests in the yacht.

Further investigation is under way.