21 people still missing from sunken tour boat in Hungary
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Rescue crews were gearing up Thursday to raise a sightseeing boat from the bottom of the Danube River in the heart of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, as search teams scoured the waters for 21 people still missing after the vessel, packed with South Korean tourists, collided with a larger cruise ship and sank.
Seven people are confirmed dead and seven have been 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 is being treated for broken ribs.
Officials said preparations to bring up the 70-year-old boat, which was built in the former Soviet Union, could take days.
Police, who launched a criminal investigation into the incident, said late Thursday they had detained and questioned the Ukrainian captain of the larger vessel.
The 64-year-old man is suspected of endangering water transport leading to a deadly mass accident. In line with Hungarian laws, the suspect was identified only as Yuriy C., referencing his first name and the initial letter of his last name. Police proposed the arrest of the Odessa resident, described earlier by police as an experienced sailor.
So far, only seven of the 35 people on board, that included 33 South Koreans, are known to have survived the incident near the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest. Seven others are confirmed dead and 21 remain missing.
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 during a downpour Wednesday evening.
Nineteen South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members — the captain and his assistant — remain missing.