Eight perish as tourist boat sinks in Budapest

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Prospects were slight on Thursday for finding 20 people missing from a group of South Koreans aboard a pleasure boat that capsized in the Danube River in the Hungarian capital, killing at least eight, authorities said.

The double-decker cruise boat reportedly collided with another tourist vessel near the Hungarian parliament building on Wednesday, before turning on its side and sinking in about seven seconds. The river was already flooded, with very strong currents, when a rainstorm enveloped Budapest.

"I am not inclined to say there is no hope, so I would rather say there is a minimal chance (to find more survivors)," Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for the Hungarian national ambulance service, told state television.

"This is not just because of the water temperature, but the strong currents in the river, the vapor above the water surface, as well as the clothes worn by the people who fell in," he said, citing obstacles in reply to a question about the ongoing search for the missing.

A massive rescue effort deployed boats, divers, spotlights, and radar scanning to scour the river for several kilometers downstream from the site of the accident, which took place soon after 9 pm on Wednesday.

Seven South Koreans were rescued, seven died, 19 were missing, and one Hungarian died, said Kang Hyung-shik, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official. The seven survivors were suffering from hypothermia but stable, a Hungarian ambulance spokesman said.

Kang said the South Koreans aboard the vessel were 30 tourists and three tour guides, in addition to a crew of two Hungarians. The tourists weren't wearing life jackets.

Hungarian police on Thursday launched a criminal investigation into the accident.

In Seoul, President Moon Jae-in said South Korea would work with the Hungarian government to investigate the cause of the accident.

"What's most important is speed," Moon told an emergency meeting, at which he urged the use of all diplomatic channels to ensure speedy search and rescue operations

South Korea planned to send 33 officials to Budapest, including emergency rescuers and military specialists, presidential spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said, and the government would provide counseling to victims' families.

A six-year-old on board

There was a six-year-old on board, said Lee Sang-moo, an official of the South Korean travel agency that booked the group tour. But the child did not figure on the list of survivors, the agency added.

The National Ambulance Service mounted searches along a stretch of the river downstream from Budapest and was on alert along a section further south in Hungary, where all boat traffic was halted.

Television images showed the bank of the Danube closed off by police on the Pest side, across from the World Heritage site of Buda Castle.

The Danube's flooding and currents made rescue efforts extremely difficult, a rescue diver told the state broadcaster, with water temperatures ranging between 10 C and 12 C.

The boat, the Mermaid, was a 27-meter river cruise boat with a 150-horsepower engine and could hold up to 60 people, its owner, Panorama Deck Ltd, told state media.

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 05/31/2019 page11)