Danube River Nightmare: 2 Dead, 5 Missing in Boat Crash
Two people died and five others are missing following a suspected collision between a small motorboat and a cruise ship on the Danube River north of Budapest on Saturday evening, according to police quoted by Reuters.
The bodies of an adult male and female were found north of the capital. Authorities are still searching for the five missing people.
Hungarian police received a report late Saturday night that a man was found bleeding from the head on the banks of the Danube near the town of Veroce, about 50 kilometres north of Budapest. The bodies of a man and woman were later found nearby.
After commencing their search, police located a damaged boat in the water a few hours later and towed it to the shore. The search is underway for five adults – three men and two women – believed to have been on the boat.
Police determined that a river cruise ship was in the area at the time of the accident. They stopped a cruise ship with a damaged hull near the town of Komarom, more than 80 kilometres upstream.
This fatal accident comes five years after a similar tragedy in Budapest, where at least 27 people died when a river cruise ship collided with a smaller tourist boat, sinking it in seconds. The tourist boat Hableany, carrying 35 people mostly South Korean tourists, was overtaken from behind by the much larger cruise ship Viking Sigyn under the Margit Bridge in Budapest in May 2019.
The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn was found guilty last year of negligence resulting in a mass fatal catastrophe and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He has appealed the decision.
Police announced on Sunday that they had opened a criminal investigation against an unknown perpetrator, suspected of endangering water transport and causing the deaths of several people.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
