Hungarian authorities say the conditions on the river are hindering rescue efforts
BUDAPEST, June 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rapid river currents are hindering rescue efforts in the Hungarian capital Budapest days after a tour boat sank.
At least seven people died and more than 20 remain missing after a large vessel collided with the Hableany, or Mermaid, near the the Margit (Margaret) Bridge on the Danube on Wednesday.
Relatives of South Korean victims have been arriving in Hungary.
South Korea’s foreign minister has vowed not to give up the search for more survivors.
Kang Kyung-wha, speaking at a press conference with Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, said she and her team “won’t give up our hopes about the possibility of finding survivors”.
“We strive to ensure no corpses are lost from the wreckage or the riverbed,” she added.
But officials say the conditions on the river are stopping several hundred rescuers on the scene from reaching the sunken ship.
“We have to say that circumstances are working against us,” Szijjártó said.
Water levels, inflated by heavy rain, are not predicted to drop until Tuesday. The search has been expanded to cover the whole length of the river, and Hungary has contacted Serbian authorities downstream.
Thirty South Korean tourists and three tour guides, as well as two Hungarian crew, were on board the Hableany.
Only seven people are confirmed to have survived the incident, while seven South Korean tourists are known to have died.
Most of the tourists were aged between 40 and 50 but the group also included a six-year-old child and a man in his 70s, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
CCTV footage showed a larger tour boat – Viking Sigyn – hitting the Hableany from behind in central Budapest after 21:00 local time on Wednesday.
Viking Sgyn’s captain, identified as 64-year-old Ukrainian national Yuriy C, has been held as a suspect over reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties.
Emergency crews found the wreckage of the Hableany, a double-decker river cruise boat built in 1949 in the former Soviet Union, on the riverbed near the Margaret Bridge and were preparing to lift it. — NNN-AGENCIES
