BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Two people are dead and five are missing after a boat crash on Hungary’s Danube River, police say.
Hungarian police received a call late Saturday night that a man with head injuries had been found on the banks of the Danube near the town of Velocce, about 50 kilometers north of the capital Budapest. The bodies of a man and a woman were later discovered nearby.
Hours after police began searching, they found the damaged boat in the water and towed it to shore. They are continuing to search for the five adults (three men and two women) believed to have been on the boat.
Police said they determined a river cruise ship was in the area at the time of the accident. They stopped the damaged cruise ship more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) upriver near the town of Komarom.
Hungarian public television station M1 reported that the cruise ship Heidelberg is a 109-meter (357-foot) Swiss ship with a capacity for 110 people. According to M1, there were no injuries to the passengers on the boat.
The Danube River in Veloce is approximately 1,500 feet (460 meters) wide and is located in the center of an area known as the Danube Bend, where the river makes a sharp almost 90-degree southward bend. The area is a popular destination for recreation and boating, and is on a route frequented by cruise ships between Budapest and the Austrian capital, Vienna, approximately 230 kilometers (140 miles) upriver.
Damage is visible to the front of a cruise ship involved in an accident on the Danube River, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Budapest, Hungary. Police say two people are dead and five are missing after a boat crash on the Danube River in Hungary. (AP Photo/Bela Chandelsky)
The fatal accident occurred five years after a river cruise ship collided with a small tourist boat in Budapest, sinking within seconds and killing at least 27 people.
In May 2019, the tourist boat Habrejani carrying 35 people, mostly Korean tourists, was overtaken from behind by the larger cruise ship Viking Sigyn under Budapest’s Margaret Bridge.
The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn was found guilty of negligence in causing the deadly disaster last year and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He appealed this decision.
Police announced on Sunday that they had opened criminal proceedings against an unknown perpetrator on suspicion of endangering water traffic and causing the deaths of several people.
A spokesperson for the Disaster Management Directorate told Hungarian news agency MTI that a group of about 90 people from several regional disaster management agencies was searching for the missing people by land, water and air.
Imre Doka said 12 boats and three drones were taking part in the search, as well as two rescue divers.
