Budapest:
Hungarian police said Wednesday the bodies of two more South Korean tourists had been found after the sinking of a sightseeing vessel in Budapest last week, raising the toll to 13 killed with 15 people still missing.
The vessel, the Mermaid, was carrying mainly South Korean tourists when it overturned and sank within seconds after a May 29 collision with a cruise ship, the Viking Sigyn, on a busy stretch of the Danube river in the heart of Budapest.
Police said in a statement that a body found 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Hungarian capital, in the town of Abony, was that of a South Korean passenger from the stricken boat.
The Hungarian TEK counter-terror police agency, which is leading an international team of divers and experts at the accident scene, said it had also brought up another body of a South Korean tourist from an opening in the boat’s wreckage.
“One of the Hungarian divers found the body in one of the boat’s openings while on a reconnaissance dive,” said a statement by TEK.
Only seven of the 35 people who were on board are listed as having survived.
The prospect of finding any more of the 15 missing passengers alive is seen as practically nil.
Most of the bodies are presumed to be stuck inside the wreck, but police have also been searching the river south of Budapest as far as the Serbian border, 175 kilometres (110 miles) away.
Divers and experts at the scene of the sinking continued to assess how to safely hoist the submerged boat from nine metres (30 feet) of water to the surface without it breaking into pieces.
Those missing include a six-year-old girl as well as the Mermaid’s Hungarian captain and a crew member.
According to the Hungarian authorities the high water level — swollen by weeks of heavy rain — and speed of the river current, as well as very low visibility underwater is hampering the preparation of the boat for salvaging, as well as making attempts to enter it potentially lethal.
A Hungarian diver was almost swept away by the current last Friday after an air cable on his equipment became caught on a ladder. Visibility underwater is said to be zero.
A barge carrying a crane powerful enough to lift the Mermaid arrived in Budapest Wednesday but was to remain docked in the north of the city until the river level subsides enough to allow it to pass under several bridges and approach the accident scene.
Experts said the crane would most likely to start the salvage operation at the beginning of next week.
The 64-year-old captain of the river cruise ship was charged Saturday over the accident, according to a Budapest court official.
He was detained by police on Thursday for questioning for “endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths”.
His lawyers said he was “devastated” by the accident but has insisted he did not make any error.
