The search for five missing passengers is ongoing
Two people have been killed and five others are missing after two boats crashed on the Danube River.
Hungarian police say the crash between a small motor boat and a cruise ship happened late on Saturday evening, and was reported after a man with a bleeding head wound was found on the riverbank.
He was found by the river near Veroce, which is 34 miles north of the capital Budapest. A man’s body was found close by, while the body of a woman was recovered further downstream.
The damaged motor boat was found close to the woman’s body, near a bridge on the northern outskirts of Budapest.
Disaster response units are still searching for the five other passengers – three men and two women – who were aboard the small motor boat, with drones, boats, and rescue divers involved in the search.
Soma Csecsi, a spokesperson for Budapest police, said: ‘Police talked to the man and from his initial communication they drew the conclusion that he was probably the victim of some kind of boat accident.
‘At the time of the accident a cruise ship was located in the area, which was stopped at the town of Komarom where police have determined that the ship is damaged on one side.’
Police believe the other ship involved is the 109-metre-long cruise ship identified as Swiss-based Heidelberg.
It’s not known how many people were on board at the time, or their nationalities, and police stopped the Heidelberg more than 50 miles upriver.
An investigation against an ‘unknown perpetrator’ on suspicion of endangering water transport and causing the death of several people has now been launched by police, to discover if anyone is criminally liable for the crash.
More Trending
The deadly incident comes five years after at least 27 people were killed in Budapest when a river cruise boat collided with a smaller tourist vessel, sinking it in seconds.
Tourist boat Hableany, carrying 35 people who were mostly South Korean tourists, was overtaken from behind by the much larger cruise boat, Viking Sigyn, beneath Budapest’s Margit Bridge, in May 2019.
The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn was last year found guilty of negligence leading to a fatal mass catastrophe and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He has appealed the decision.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.