TOUR BOAT SINKS IN 7 SECONDS.
Cruise ship hits vessel carrying South Koreans
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY • Rescue crews in Hungary’s capital were preparing to raise a sightseeing boat from the bottom of the Danube River Thursday as search teams scoured the waters for 21 people missing after the vessel, packed with South Korean tourists, collided with a larger cruise ship and sank.
Seven people are confirmed dead and seven were rescued, all of them South Koreans, Hungarian officials said. Hungary’s state TV reported that all those rescued have been released from the hospital except one who’s being treated for broken ribs. Police launched a criminal investigation into the incident.
A South Korean group on a package tour of Europe — including 30 tourists, two guides and a photographer — were on an hour-long sightseeing tour of Budapest when their boat collided with a Viking cruise ship amid a downpour Wednesday evening.
Nineteen South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members — the captain and his assistant — remain missing.
Officials said preparations to bring up the 70-year-old boat, which was built in the former Soviet Union, could take days. The sunken boat was located early Thursday near the Margit Bridge, not far from the neo-Gothic Parliament building on the riverbank.
Video released by Hungarian police showed the sightseeing boat, identified as the Hableany (Mermaid), travelling closely side by side and in the same direction as a German-built Viking cruise ship as they approached the bridge Wednesday night.
The Hableany then appeared to steer slightly to its left, into the path of the 135-metre-long cruise ship, which continued to sail on at the same speed. The two collided and the sightseeing boat was then seen tipping on its side between the bridge’s two supports.
“As the Viking comes into contact with (the Hableany), it overturns it and in about seven seconds, as it turn on its side, it sinks,” Police Col. Adrian Pal said.
Pal said it’s unclear what caused the Hableany to steer into the path of the Viking. He said several people aboard the Hableany fell into the water after the collision. The South Korean government said none of those on board was wearing a life-jacket.
Police said rescue operations were hampered by the rain and the fast flow of the rising Danube. The search for the 21 missing extended far downstream, even into Serbia, where the Danube goes after leaving Hungary.